Eidtorial #48: DAN Doctors Sued

Autism Politico notes that some Defeat Autism Now doctors are being sued.

The defendants — family-practice physicians Dr. Anjum Usman of Naperville and Dr. Daniel Rossignol of Melbourne, Fla. — are prominent in the Defeat Autism Now! movement, which promotes many of the alternative treatments the Tribune scrutinized. Both have spoken to groups of parents at autism conferences and trained other physicians in their methods.

Autism Politico is thankful that parents of autistics are taking a closer look at the treatments being prescribed for autism by doctors. Even so, the subject of quack treatments causes problems even within people’s families:

The treatments Coman’s son received are also the subject of a bitter divorce and custody battle between Coman and his wife. She has been a proponent of the therapies for the boy, according to divorce court records.

But here is something ELSE people may wish to consider going forward:

Autistics grow up, and when they do, they look back not only on what treatments they have been subjected to, but WHO subjected them to the treatments. Autism Politico knows of many autistics who harbor bitterness and resentment towards their parents or guardians for making them guinea pigs.

Autistics will sometimes never speak to their parents again because of what happened to them in their childhood. The excuse they are often given by their parents -“We didn’t know any better”- doesn’t cut it with autistics. When autistics take it upon themselves to read the science, they IMMEDIATELY know better, and the first thing they wonder is why, in the wake of such science, which has existed for years, did their parents choose to ignore it and claim not to know any better.

Someday, the more capable among the autistic population will consider what has happened to them when they were still children, and they are not only going to sue the doctors whom they feel mis-treated them, but their parents, for endangering them.

If there were any treatments out there for autism that really worked, mainstream doctors would be prescribing them, and they would be dirt cheap. True humanitarians would not let money stand in the way of curing what many feel is a debilitating disorder.

Quacks charge all kinds of money, and the results tend to be anecdotal at best.

Maybe parents who waste money on quack treatments would yield more favorable results if they loved their autistic children for who they are. Then autistics would be inclined to respond more positively to this new and infrequent love.

Think about it: Romantic relationships that begin with “If you’ll only change” seldom work out. Why should a parent-child relationship do any better when it has the same faulty foundation?  

Replies to this editorial are welcome.