Comments on: Another autistic child murdered

By: Science-Based Medicine » The price of anti-vaccine fanaticism: Case histories

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:21:58 +0000

[...] Fortunately, Warner failed to kill herself. Likely, she really did want to live and didn’t hit herself on the head as hard as she thought. Also fortunately, it’s really pretty difficult to kill oneself that way, given how hard the skull is and how painful it is to hit oneself on the head repeatedly with a hard object. That she even tried to do it, however, signals just how much the guilt that the “biomed” movement engenders in parents, in essence blaming them for having caused their children’s autism by having them vaccinated, can add to the already considerable life stresses that raising such children can produce. Moreover, it’s not hard to imagine that parents, after having come to the end of all that “biomed” has to offer with no improvement in their children, could enter a deep and profound depression, full of despair, to the point that suicide starts to look like the only way out. After all, in the “biomed” world, not only did these parents cause their children’s autism, but they’ve failed to cure it. It’s not so unreasonable to speculate that such guilt could even lead to murder-suicide. [...]

By: Kev

Kev — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 09:34:14 +0000

MM, I am very sorry that you have been taken in by the tales of those who wish to portray autism as never ending misery. It isn’t. It is hard sometimes but that never, ever gives anyone excuse to kill another human being.

For some more education for you please google the name of the commenter above mine, Mike McCarron and that of his grand daughter Katie McCarron.

By: Mike McCarron

Mike McCarron — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 08:46:09 +0000

“Firstly, I don’t think it’s upsetting to ask for more understanding and sympathy for the parents.”

My sympathy goes to the children. You speak of endless crying and continuous tantrums, however, that apparently was not the case with these children. So now what excuse?

There are parents raising children with far greater challenges than these children reportedly presented. Those parents do it with love everyday. They are the ones that have my understanding, my support and my admiration.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:15:50 +0000

Firstly, I don’t think it’s upsetting to ask for more understanding and sympathy for the parents.

In case you missed it the first time, MM, what’s upsetting is your unfounded assumption that we don’t know what it’s like. Some of us have autistic kids; very obviously autistic kids. Some of us are autistic. I’m sorry we are such an inconvenience to you.

You can ask for understanding all you like, but I can’t help but wonder how I could possibly give “understanding” (pity really) to a parent who is by no means in any situation that could be considered worse than mine.

By: mike stanton

mike stanton — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:11:42 +0000

MM
thank you for the explanation. People who share a common language frequently misunderstand each other’s meaning. I appreciate how difficult it must be trying to participate in a discussion like this in a foreign language.

Which country are you from and what is your conection to autism?

By: MM

MM — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:00:28 +0000

Thank you for all your replies and sorry for my english, I haven’t used it a lot recently.

I have all the respect for Mr Mike stanton and everyone here, I am just expressing my thoughts, there is no need to be hostile(this is to some people).

Firstly, I don’t think it’s upsetting to ask for more understanding and sympathy for the parents.

Secondly, I think autism itself can kill too, even well-informed, loving parents sometimes wish it’s the end the world, the destruction of human being when their kid are crying/tantrum non-stop. We are not saints, it’s impossible to be positive all the time.

Finally, I think if the parents expressed negative coments/feelings to the others, people should be more supportive and understanding, if everyone blamed them, then maybe they would be more isolated and depressed, end up killing themselves and kids. That is not what we want to see.

(I read many english books and articles about autism before but I am terrible with names, sorry for offending Mr Mike Stanton and the others here. I googled about autism to come to this blog so to tell the truth, I am not familiar with the website. This does not mean I don’t do research, I don’t think people are familiar with autism society in my country too.)

By: Joseph

Joseph — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 03:32:06 +0000

I don’t mean it’s right to kill but the parents are not cold blooded murders, they are victims too. You don’t know how it’s like.

I don’t think most people can appreciate how upsetting it is to see comments like “you don’t know what it’s like.” Damn, I hope I don’t ever have to see that again.

And yes, they are cold blooded murderers.

By: Mike McCarron

Mike McCarron — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 20:36:47 +0000

@ Mike Stanton, I give you a great deal of credit for providing (MM) with a calm and courteous reply. I have encountered so many who do no research, have no facts but are more than willing to use the death of a child as a back drop for posting their opinions.

By: mike stanton

mike stanton — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 18:00:58 +0000

MM
a lot of us do know what it is like. The blog author is a parent of an autistic child. So am I and many of the commenters here. The others are autistic adults by and large. We want better services to take the pressure off parents. Things like respite care and access to speech and language therapy, training for parents and realistic information.

Kids like Kyle get killed because the parents are told early on that there is no hope without a cure by the quacks who latch onto them and drive them to bankruptcy with expensive snake oil remedies. They hear about recovered kids who were either misdiagnosed to begin with or have developed to the extent that they are no longer eligible for services. (That is just like some of the adults here. NB not eligible is not the same as does not require. )

And although you are right and there can never be any justification for murder, no matter how severe the challenges of raising your autistic child, it is a fact that often those murdered, like Kyle, and Katie McCarron before him are not the most severely impaired children who scream and tantrum and self injure all the the time. Even with those children, no matter how bad the situation, it is my experience that, if you are honest with parents and give them the support they need, they cope. Quacks give them misinformation, false hope and ultimate despair. That is the what drives parents over the edge. If the parents are victims they are not victims of autism. They are victims of autism’s false prophets.

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 17:00:58 +0000

MM, the two people who responded to you actually have autistic children, as does Kev the main owner of this blog. Mr. Stanton (click on his name for his website) has a grown son on the spectrum, and not only works with autistic people and has written a book on the subject.

I would suggest you poke around the Autism-Hub to get to know the folks you are responding to a bit better.

No on denies raising a disabled child is difficult (my son is not autistic, but has severe learning disabilities along with some other health issues)... but you seem to miss the point that the father of this child was scammed into financial ruin by fake “cures.” The real criminals were the purveyors of “cures” for fake “precocious puberty”, metal poisoning and a host of other things.