The McCarron family and the Leitch family have become close over the last few weeks. We have never met. We have never heard each others voices. We have only seen pictures of each other and communicated by email but in that communication has been a sharing of warmth, emotion and desire to connect such as some people never seem to get in their lives. We have swapped addresses as well as photos and they know should they ever want to come to the UK they have a home here. We know that the reverse is true also.
And yet I wish it wasn’t so. A part of me heartily wishes I’d never spoken with Mike. I’m sure he feels the same. This is because of the circumstances that led to us meeting. The murder of his granddaughter, Katie McCarron. If I could ensure a return to life in the arms of her dad, sister and grandparents by swapping that for the friendship of one of the kindest, bravest families I’ve ever met then I would do it in an heartbeat.
Mike refuses to see Katie portrayed as a burden, or as someone in pain. This is because she wasn’t. He also refuses to let people directly or indirectly attempt to absolve Katie’s killer by making murder the responsibility of an uncaring society. This is because it wasn’t. It was murder.
Recently, Stephen Drake of Not Dead Yet, wrote a press release calling for restraint when reporting these kind of murders – i.e. murders of disabled kids.
Researcher Dick Sobsey has documented an increase in the murders of children by their parents in Canada in relation to well-publicized and sympathetic coverage of the murders of children with disabilities. Articles about the alleged murder of a person with a disability should not contain more about the disability than about the victim as a person. More space should be devoted to grieving family members than sympathetic friends of the accused killer.
And yet, yesterday, the Chicago Tribune released a piece of journalism that can be best described as callow.
The piece starts off by portraying members of the mercury/autism connection as the inheritors of the sort of stigma that those who actually were persecuted by Bettlehiem underwent:
It has been nearly 50 years since mothers shouldered the blame for their children’s autism. Yet for many parents, echoes of that painful era remain……
In the 1950s and ’60s, the medical community accepted University of Chicago psychoanalyst Bruno Bettelheim’s assessment that “refrigerator mothers”–those with a supposedly cold, unloving demeanor–brought on their children’s disorder.
Although we now know that autism is a neurological disorder and not the result of bad parenting, the exact cause remains a mystery.
Many parents, however, are convinced they’ve found the answer. And most experts are on the opposing side.
Indeed, few medical battles are more charged than that between parents who believe mercury in their children’s vaccines brought on autism and the medical establishment that has found no evidence to support that claim.
Where the ground really starts to shift is the next association made – that it was this society induced guilt that led poor heroic Karen McCarron into killing her vaccine-injured ‘heavy toll’ inducing daughter.
Some who knew McCarron through her work with an autism support group say the physician blamed herself for allowing her daughter to be vaccinated, and feared that the available remedies wouldn’t make enough of an improvement to her daughter’s quality of life. Others suggest that perhaps working among other doctors skeptical of the vaccine connection created an emotional tug of war for McCarron
I think I know Mike well enough now to be absolutely sure that he and his family would be _outraged_ at these utterly vacuous statements. To besmirch the memory of Katie McCarron by trying to empathise with her murdering mother and to try and absolve her and by implication blame the mainstream medical community is appalling.
In fact, the reverse is almost certainly true – the utter hopelessness that groups such as Autism Speaks like to foment are much more likely to have led to any depression Katie’s murderer might’ve had. And if she felt that vaccines caused her daughters autism then she long ago crossed the line into quackery. In this case, fatal quackery. There is still absolutely zero evidence that vaccines cause autism. Anyone – and I mean _anyone_ who has had a hand in perpetuating that myth bears some responsibility for the murder of Katie McCarron.
On the 22nd of June, Kellie A. Waremburg attempted to kill her four year old daughter. Thankfully she failed. Her daughter has cerebral palsy.
Shortly afterwards, the same barrage of testimonials commenting on how good a mother Waremburg was came out and how difficult it is to parent a child with cerebral palsy:
“She’s always been a good mom. She’s always interacting with her (daughter),” said next-door neighbor Katie Gardiner.
Families face challenges, there’s no question about it. Children have varying degrees of impairment. For some families, there is a minimal impact to families who need to take every aspect of their child’s care – feed them, dress them, toilet them,” said Morgan, who also is the chief of the section of child development within the Department of Pediatrics at University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria.
So? So what? Get over it, get on with it. If you can’t, then hand your child over to family members or social services and let someone who doesn’t put themselves first get on with it.
I want to clue these killer parents and those parents and groups who ‘understand’ killer parents into something: Your child is not your property. You have no rights over them. You have an obligation to parent them, love them, feed them, clothe them, teach them and let them be who they are. When you have a child, you put yourself last. If your career suffers – that’s not their fault. If you can’t go out as much as you used to – that’s not their fault. If money is a problem – that’s not their fault. Stop transferring your unhappiness about the way your life has changed into excuses for killing, or understanding the killers of, children.
I’ve had two themes running through this blog of late. One is this one – the murder of disabled children. The other one is what’s going on at the Judge Rotenberg Centre where electric skin shock is used to punish autistic and non-autistic students. People who believe in the concept of neurodiversity have been outraged and blogged both of these events continuously and thoroughly.
There is however, one section of people who has remained utterly and totally silent on both issues. The self styled ‘autism community’ who perpetuate the ongoing myth of vaccines causing autism.
Autism Speaks released a short movie about the horrors of having to live life with an autistic child. I’ve seen no movies about the JRC, or investigations into electric shocks for autistic people.
The NAA who regularly (and falsely) denounce good science and promote bad released a damp squib of an online petition and then fell totally silent on the issue.
Safe Minds? Nothing.
ACHAMP? Nothing.
These, don’t forget, are the people who call themselves the autism community. Seems to me like they care about one issue and one issue only.
And how about the anti-mercury bloggers? The grass-roots ‘autism community’.
Adventures in Autism? Nothing.
UPDATE: Ginger informs me that she’s temporarily not blogging at all and hadn’t even heard of Katie McCarron. In this light, it doesn’t seem fair to place AiA here.
Injecting Sense? Nothing.
Whilst these people continue their obsession with trying to find some kind of spurious link between vaccines and autism the world continues to turn. Whilst they present themselves to politicians and media outlets as the autism community, the world continues to turn. Whilst they attend single issue conferences, the world continues to turn.
Unless you’re Katie McCarron. Then the world doesn’t turn at all.
Unless you’re Lexus Fuller. Her world is shattered as she must grow up knowing her mum tried to kill her.
Unless you’re a student at the JRC where the world and time must appear to stand still as you are electrocuted for non-compliance.
Left Brain Right Brain 
Well said Kev.
The NAA site currently has a press release defending Andrew Wakefield where the JRC press release should have been.
The Chicago Tribune owes the real autism community an apology.
Kevin,
After reading and rereading this, I don’t think there is anything I can add to your analysis. Thank you.
Later today, I’ll be emailing my usual folks to alert them to your analysis and the URL for this blog entry.
You nailed it.
–Stephen
It is unbelievable the Chicago Tribune would print that. It is unbelievable Autism Every Day is still up, considering the research of Dick Sobsey. If these people want to blame someone other than the murderer, they should have a look in the mirror.
Powerful and effective post.
Well done.
Kevin, I was waiting for a post like this from you. You’ve officially hijacked the tragedy of Katie’s murder and turned it into a platform for your anti-biomed activism.
This is a tragedy we ALL share. Not just the neurodiverse.
Can’t we just agree that Karen McCarron was suffering from a mental illness exacerbated by stress and leave it at that? She was sick, not evil. And the compassion that some have expressed toward the tragedy of her personal breakdown (and the entire family’s loss) should not be attributed to some devaluing of autistic children. I think everyone grieves Katie’s loss…even if they’re not posting about it on their websites.
But here you are… using the tragedy as a platform, rather than just acknowledging and grieving with those who were touched by it. If Karen McCarron hadn’t been pursuing biomedical interventions, I don’t think you would be exploiting this murder.
Oh and another thing: THe electric skin shock. You think the neurodiverse are the only ones pissed off by that? You’re wrong. It’s a horrible way to train any child…worse than any amount of hitting or spanking. And we haven’t been silent on that. There’s been outrage expressed by the heads of several autism orgs in the Yahoo groups…and I happen to know they’ve written letters in opposition of this practice.
“So? So what? Get over it, get on with it. If you can’t, then hand your child over to family members or social services and let someone who doesn’t put themselves first get on with it.”
Although I agree with you that the press and groups like Autism Speaks are trying to justify the murder of disabled children, I cannot agree with the above statement. Lack of support for parents bringng up children with disabilities *is* a major issue here. Indeed some parents have ended up with nervous breakdowns due to the pressure, which incidentally, is the fault of the systematic discrimination levied against both disabled people and their carers by a capitalist society that puts profit before people. The argument that parents who ‘can’t cope’ are just bad parents and that it’s their own fault is the argument of the Norman Tebbits of this world, and is on the same level as Bettelheim’s.
Erik,
Kevin hasn’t “turned” this into *anything*.
A bunch of Karen McCarron’s friends just used this tragedy to boost their own cause – and to boost sympathy for Karen McCarron.
I cannot and do not assume “everyone” grieves Katie’s death – or feels much for the family. So far, the ANSWERS “support” group have said *nothing* about the real, long-term nightmare the rest of the McCarron family faces. The same is true of the Autism Society of Illinois. Their official spokesperson has been one of the worst offenders in terms of using this to promote his own agenda. And they sure haven’t repsected the pleas from the McCarron family to stop exploiting the situation – that goes for both groups of “advocates.”
–Stephen
Erik:
Can’t we just agree that Karen McCarron was suffering from a mental illness exacerbated by stress and leave it at that? She was sick, not evil.
You could claim that about every murderer out there. Murders don’t occur in a vacuum. Yet it is only the murderers of the disabled who receive sympathy such as that Karen McCarron has received. Why is that?
I know you hope Kev would shut up about this. But Kev is the parent of an autistic girl, whom he accepts and loves as she is. I’m sure he’s shocked that another autistic girl was murdered. And campaigning against the kind of coverage that makes these murders even more likely is a good thing, but for some strange reason you seem to disagree with that.
Nice work, Kev. I just put up my response on
http://www.autismvox.com/we-need-to-get-beyond-the-blame/
Too many parents of autistic kids try to be their “Saviors”. Through all the great and small hype, no one has been cured of autism. You are setting yourself up for frustration.
I don’t want to be my kid’s savior. I want to be his mom.
Remember when left-handedness was “sinister”, and epileptics were supposedly in need of exorcism? We are hardly any farther with autism.
I don’t see it as mental illness, either, regardless of the APA’s desire for me to do so, any more than a blind person or a deaf person is mentally ill because they deal with life differently. I wish I had the mental clarity of many autistics who post here.
Thanks for sticking up for the kids.
Thank you Redaspie, I was about to make that point. I don’t understand or condone or excuse murder, but I do see despair and exhaustion and the need of practical, every day help for parents of children with extraordinary needs.
Nice post, Kev. It sickens me to see sympathy for murderers of children, regardless of circumstances, but that’s just me.
Erik,
As for Karen McCarron being ‘sick’ you get no argument from me. But I still have no sympathy for her. She is a doctor, for crying out loud. She should have gotten help for herself instead of murdering an innocent child. Why did her ‘sickness’ only manifest itself when her daughter arrived back home? As far as I know, mental illness doesn’t just suddenly happen. If she is sick, she’s been sick for a while.
Infamous child murderers are nearly always ‘sick’ but we don’t see the misguided sympathy that is streaming forth for these latest killers.
If you are so personally outraged, why is there no reference to the McCarron tragedy on FAIR’s website? If it’s there, it’s buried, because I looked …
Thanks for your response, Catherine. I have a problem with some of the reactions to this issue here and other websites, which go beyond arguing that the media and some autism orgs have acted in ways that suggest that murdering autistic kids is somehow ‘OK’ (which I agree is happening) and argue more broadly that such crimes are purely an act of wicked individuals. This kind of argument implies a retributionary response to such events, such as calling for tougher prison sentences or the death penalty, rather than campaigning for the vital social change that will be necessary for autistics, the disabled and other marginalised groups to be fully accomodated in society.
Erik,
You owe Kevin AND the McCarron family an apology.
It was the antivaxers and the people who resent their autistic children who hijacked Katie’s death to use it as a plank in their platform, as Mr McCarron put it. Not 24 hours after her death out came the sympathy and the “we need more services” crap.
No.
You do not do that to the memory of a 3 year old. Especially when the only person who had a problem with her was her hypocritical mother.
What happened to “Do no harm”? She took that oath, and she broke it. She broke it by committing an unspeakable, premeditated MURDER.
Murderers don’t deserve sympathy. I don’t care if they’re “sick”…I’ve been bipolar for nearly 20 years now and I’ve managed to not kill anyone. If they’re that damn sick there’s a nice medication called Zyprexa that will slap them down on their ass so they can’t hurt anyone.
And using a murder to justify the services crap, and the stress of having vaccinated a child who happens to be autistic, is despicable.
You and your ilk disgust me.
Erik
some autism advocacy groups are using Katie’s murder to further their agenda despite the McCarron family making it clear that they do not want this to happen. These groups are aided and abetted by the journalists who give them a platform. Kev is completely justified when he calls them on this.
Regarding JRC perhaps it would haver more impact if “[the] outrage expressed by the heads of several autism orgs in the Yahoo groups” was expressed a little more publicly, on their websites perhaps. NAA have pulled their press release from their site. There is nothing on Generation Rescue, Safe Minds, Autism Speaks, and most shameful of all, the Autism Society of America. If Wakefield or Kirby went national on this there wopuld be coast to coast headlines. So let us get Beyond the Silence on this one and Let Me Hear Your Voice.
Erik,
Though Karen McCarron may well have been suffering a mental illness, I suspect that her “stress” may have been exacerbated by the messages about life with autism that seem to be increasingly pervasive in our culture – bleak messages of despair and hopelessness, of one painful, fruitless day after another. I wish that messages from other “autism parents” who, like me, have moments of struggle embedded in lifetimes of joy and love and celebration got something close to equal billing. Perhaps if Karen McCarron had been exposed to a different vision of what her life and Katie’s could be, Katie might still be here to enjoy it.
GMAC: “If you are so personally outraged, why is there no reference to the McCarron tragedy on FAIR’s website? If it’s there, it’s buried, because I looked …”
GMAC, FAIR’s website content is decided by the board of directors. We decided long ago that we would focus on collecting expert testimony on primarily biomedical & political issues concerning the autism community. We simply don’t cover all these tragedies, because so many other websites and organizations do.
Joseph: “I know you hope Kev would shut up about this. But Kev is the parent of an autistic girl, whom he accepts and loves as she is. I’m sure he’s shocked that another autistic girl was murdered. And campaigning against the kind of coverage that makes these murders even more likely is a good thing, but for some strange reason you seem to disagree with that.”
Joseph, I am the parent of an autistic girl, too. I was pained to hear of Katie’s murder…especially since I was familiar with Karen after having had phone conversations with her (prior) and traded a few emails. I am shocked beyond belief. She never appeared to be someone who resented her child, as some folks consider us parents who are trying to cure their children. I am convinced she was mentally ill and majorly stressed. Let’s face it. Some autistic children are so troubled by issues like irritable bowels, etc. and are very uncomfortable…so they act out and cause their parents stress. I’m no stranger to this. Add this stress to someone who is mentally or emotionally unbalanced and you can get a disaster.
I hate the sin, but not the sinner. That’s the christian in me, not the biomed activist.
I don’t think that when the media covers the challenges parents face with caring for their autistic children creates a greater likelihood for these kinds of murders. I think that’s ridiculous. There is still a great ignorance, at large, about what autism is and how it affects families. And there’s a great need for services that isn’t being met. I’m not blaming lack of services for Katie’s death, no. Just saying that it’s not a sin for a parent to admit to the press that caring for their kids can be tough…both emotionally and financially.
There’s an impression I get from many of you that biomed parents don’t love their children as they are. Ridiculous. I love my child whether she recovers or not. But OUT OF LOVE, I do my best to give her the best future possible. And if that means healing her bowels, removing toxic metals and supplementing nutrient deficiencies…well, by golly, what could be wrong with that?
[edited Lupron sales pitch]
I’m saddened by your response Erik.
As I said at the top of this post, the McCarron’s and the Leitch’s have become close over the last few weeks. There is no way I would attempt to usurp Katie’s memory. Megan has become an ‘adopted’ granddaughter to Mike and Gail – a fact that we take pride and joy in. Insulting the memory of Katie would be akin to insulting my own children.
You state that there was an outcry regarding JRC and the murder of Katie McCarron from your friends. Where? I see nothing. Should I look forward to a public campaign from FAIR Media? Or will you be too busy filming the Geier’s?
You state that it is better to realise Katie’s mum was mentally ill and leave it at that. I don’t believe she was mentally ill. I believe she had bought into a pack of false promises and when they didn’t turn out to _her_ satisfaction she broke her daughter the way a petulant child breaks a toy she’s had enough of.
Catherinea (and others) – most certainly there is a distinct lack of services for parents of disabled kids. That is criminal and needs to be addressed. However, that fact should never be used to even _hint_ that it is ‘understandable’ to murder one’s kids. It is also not the issue. As Stephen rightly states – this is a child murder. The fact that this child was autistic should not be used to ‘educate’ or ‘highlight’ anything. There should be no positives sought in the aftermath of the murder of a child.
Part of the reason that high-profile “advocacy” groups aren’t saying a lot about the JRC may be that Matthew Israel has a reputation for litigiousness.
Erik
would these results be before and after the research protocol has completed in an IRB approved, double blind placebo controlled study using ADOS to assess the children and ADI-R for the parents, along with reliability ratings for a selection of the interviews carried out by independent trained observers?
Sorry, forget about the IRB. It was only set up after the study and packed with Geiers and cronies. And the study failed to mention that the children were getting Lupron. Double blind? How could it be if your insurance companies are paying the full whack?
In other words there are no results apart from the testimony of people who trust the Geiers and are prepared to lie to their insurance companies to get on the protocol.
You better hurry over to Neurodiversity.com and check out episode three of Serious Misrepresentations.
_”We simply don’t cover all these tragedies, because so many other websites and organizations do.”_
Really? Who? Where? When?
_”I am convinced she was mentally ill and majorly stressed. Let’s face it. Some autistic children are so troubled by issues like irritable bowels, etc. and are very uncomfortable…so they act out and cause their parents stress. I’m no stranger to this. Add this stress to someone who is mentally or emotionally unbalanced and you can get a disaster.”_
Yeah, its those damn irritable bowels. Your conjecture on Katie’s killers state of mind id just that – conjecture. And in reality it alters nothing.
_”I don’t think that when the media covers the challenges parents face with caring for their autistic children creates a greater likelihood for these kinds of murders. I think that’s ridiculous.”_
And yet the study referenced above proves you wrong.
_”There is still a great ignorance, at large, about what autism is and how it affects families. And there’s a great need for services that isn’t being met. I’m not blaming lack of services for Katie’s death, no. Just saying that it’s not a sin for a parent to admit to the press that caring for their kids can be tough…both emotionally and financially.”_
Of course its not – but the association with that debate with this debate is wrong. It creates the misleading impression that these kind of things are ‘understandable’.
_”There’s an impression I get from many of you that biomed parents don’t love their children as they are. Ridiculous. I love my child whether she recovers or not.”_
Find me one statement from me that bears that out. Just one. Its quite clear you love your child but loving ones child is not an instant absolvement of wrong doing.
Kev: “You state that it is better to realise Katie’s mum was mentally ill and leave it at that. I don’t believe she was mentally ill. I believe she had bought into a pack of false promises and when they didn’t turn out to her satisfaction she broke her daughter the way a petulant child breaks a toy she’s had enough of.”
That is the most callous and ignorant thing I have ever heard you say, Kevin. You’re saying a perfectly rational human being can be programmed to kill because of the promises of biomedical intervention? Are you absolutely insane???
That implies that someone like myself is capable of killing my daughter in a fit of rage if I don’t like the progress she’s making. Wow. I wouldn’t have thought you were capable of that line of thought, until now.
She was mentally ill, and sent over the edge from stress. Saying what you did could also equate to homosexuals. A straight man could in your view become a homosexual simply because he’s subjected to a lot of gay porn and pride parades! Or too much exercise with Richard Simmons. Rubbish.
Your view assumes she didn’t love her daughter. It assumes that biomed parents don’t love their children and could turn on them at any time… that mental illness isn’t a factor and doesn’t matter.
Wow. I truly have been wasting my time on this blog.
_”That is the most callous and ignorant thing I have ever heard you say, Kevin. You’re saying a perfectly rational human being can be programmed to kill because of the promises of biomedical intervention? Are you absolutely insane???”_
Programmed? No. I’m saying that for some people, the ‘promise’ of such quackery overwhelms reality.
_”That implies that someone like myself is capable of killing my daughter in a fit of rage if I don’t like the progress she’s making. Wow. I wouldn’t have thought you were capable of that line of thought, until now.”_
What Katie’s mum did was no fit of rage. It was a cool, calm murder. A few days after Katie’s murder, the following comment appeared on ABFH’s blog from Generation Rescue Rescue Angel and your friend John Best:
_”If he dies young [referring to his son], I will rejoice for him that he has excaped the nightmare that was his life.”_
That’s the cheapness of life according to a Rescue Angel Erik. You need to take a long hard look at the sort of attitudes your Christian attitude is absolving.
_”She was mentally ill, and sent over the edge from stress. “_
Rubbish. She killed her daughter at her parents house, drove her back to her house, carried her body up the stairs to bed past her family, came back down, drove off to get some ice-cream as an excuse to dump the plastic bag she’d smothered Katie with, returned home and then claimed Katie had died of natural causes. Thats not mental illness Erik, that’s a cold, calculated act.
You should also know that for the past 20 months, Karen McCarron had had very little to do with her daughter as she was cared for by her dad and her grandmother. How much stress can she possibly have accumulated in the short span of time she was reunited with her daughter?
_”Saying what you did could also equate to homosexuals. A straight man could in your view become a homosexual simply because he’s subjected to a lot of gay porn and pride parades!”_
You’ll have to explain that one to me Erik. I have no idea what you’re talking about.
_”Your view assumes she didn’t love her daughter.”_
No.
_”It assumes that biomed parents don’t love their children and could turn on them at any time… “_
No.
_”that mental illness isn’t a factor and doesn’t matter.”_
That’s true.
Its clear to me that you’ve not read anything written by Mike McCarron, Katie’s grandpa, about Katie’s murder. I really think you should.
Mike speaks here, here, here, here and in several places on this blog.
Mike’s opinions on what his own granddaughter was like and how she dies are a lot more authentic than yours Erik. Try and show a bit of compassion for the dead child here’.
“…most certainly there is a distinct lack of services for parents of disabled kids. That is criminal and needs to be addressed. However, that fact should never be used to even hint that it is ‘understandable’ to murder one’s kids. It is also not the issue. As Stephen rightly states – this is a child murder. The fact that this child was autistic should not be used to ‘educate’ or ‘highlight’ anything.”
I simply do not agree. To argue this is to argue that we should simply deny objective reality because it is inconvenient. It is simply a fact that the continued denial of support to carers of disabled children, when added to the systematic discrimination prevalant throughout society, and the dehumanising ideologies pushed by Autism Speaks and others, makes the murders of disabled children much more likely. It is essential that this is highlighted. Yes there may be a risk of ths making such murders more ‘acceptable’, but on the other hand the institution of the services that disabled children and their parents need and deserve could cause such things to cease to occur altogether.
“It is simply a fact that the continued denial of support to carers of disabled children, when added to the systematic discrimination prevalant throughout society, and the dehumanising ideologies pushed by Autism Speaks and others, makes the murders of disabled children much more likely. It is essential that this is highlighted. Yes there may be a risk of ths making such murders more ‘acceptable’, but on the other hand the institution of the services that disabled children and their parents need and deserve could cause such things to cease to occur altogether.”
I don’t even know where to begin with this. What you present as “simply a fact” isn’t at all. There’s never been a tie-in between crappy services and the murders of disabled people by parents, caregivers, etc. It’s not even an issue in the case of Katie McCarron’s death. The family had resources and they were using them – and happy to do so, with one notable exception.
There’s been a lot of this kind of coverage in Canada, especially after the highly-publicized murder of Tracy Latimer by her father. None of the sympathy extended to the “plight” of families resulted in an increase in services. It *has* resulted in a much higher acceptance of the murder of children with disabilities. After the ten-year sentence given to Robert Latimer, prosecutors have seemed reluctant to court public outrage, so they’ve been going very easy on parents who kill disabled kids.
One “important” policy discussion has resulted in Canada, though: the promotion of a “compassionate homicide” statute that would lower the penalties for the murders of old, ill and disabled people murdered by family members for “non-malicious” reasons.
_”Yes there may be a risk of ths making such murders more ‘acceptable’, but on the other hand the institution of the services that disabled children and their parents need and deserve could cause such things to cease to occur altogether.”_
There’s documented, tangible risk of making these kind of murders acceptable. If you want to compare that established finding to the ‘maybe’ that associating murder with lack of services ‘might’ result in better services then I have to tell you that I think that’s a very dangerous moral judgement and the life of a child is not a currency I’m prepared to barter in.
Exactly. I agree with Stephen’s press release, also, having read the research as well, that claiming the “lack of service” thing is the context here is BS. It isn’t backed up by the research, it isn’t backed up by what happens in reality. In reality, there’s a far far broader context that all these “Oh you people must be totally ignoring that we live in a society and claiming these acts are purely individual and purely evil blah blah blah” people are not seeing. You’re saying the reverse of reality, you’re claiming to be “looking at the context” while totally not looking at the real world in which this kind of coverage inevitably results in not more services, but more murders, and more acceptance of such murders. But if we say that, we must be viewing things as individuals independent of society. Yeah… right.
It is simply a fact that the continued denial of support to carers of disabled children, when added to the systematic discrimination prevalant throughout society, and the dehumanising ideologies pushed by Autism Speaks and others, makes the murders of disabled children much more likely.
I agree with the last part, but not the first. If the bit about ‘denial’ of services (not sure ‘denial’ is the right word) is true, then parents of disabled children in the third world would be killing (and complaining about) their kids all the time. I’m not aware this is the case – and I know what I’m talking about FWIW. This devaluing of people who are different is really just a phenomenon of modernity.
Hi Kevin
Wade blogged about Katie Mc Carron’s murder.
Please look at
Monday, May 22, 2006
A PLEA FOR RESTRAINT
in Wade´s blog.
MarÃa Luján
Erik: You appear to be a lost soul. So, please, stop trying to take other people with you on your dark ride into quackdom. It’s quite clear the Geier’s have their errand boy firmly in place. STOP and THINK about what you are doing, Erik, and who you are influencing. There are certain things none of us can ever take back. AND PLEASE … take your daughter to a pediatric endo for a second opinion!
Disabledocide is alive and well in Illinois and the world. Kevin obviously understands that blaming the innocent victims is wrong. My family is appalled at the lack of sympathy over the killing of Katie McCarron. Her physician mother really didn’t raise her. Katie was with her devoted father and paternal grandparents for 20 months out of state receiving services. The Autism Society of IL and ANSWERS support group are exploiting Katie’s murder for their own platforms. Lack of services and horrors of raising a child with a disability is their hackneyed mantra. These groups are putting other children with disabilities at risk. Let us not forget little 11 month old Daniel Cullen who inadvertantly pulled out his trach. Now the Dallas Hospital wants to end his misery and his Mom was given two weeks to find a facility to take him. In Dec. 2005, five year old Dylan Walborn was deliberately starved to death because he had Cerebral Palsy. It took the little guy 24 days to die and the Denver newspaper chronicled every facet of his death. In stead of giving sympathy to parents and know-it-all bioethicists that murder kids with disabilities, society should take every precaution and measure to protect, love, and accept all of us with disabilities.
Maria Lujan: As far as Wade’s blog post, it came across to me as self-serving and passive-aggressive .
This devaluing of people who are different is really just a phenomenon of modernity.
Not entirely, I’m afraid. If I am not mistaken, it wasn’t unusual for people some ancient cultures to abandon disabled babies in woods, or even outright killing. In some cultures you were considered obligated to end your life if you went blind, or obtained some other type of disability. It wasn’t exactly better for everyone back then.
ebohlman: “Part of the reason that high-profile “advocacy†groups aren’t saying a lot about the JRC may be that Matthew Israel has a reputation for litigiousness.”
Yes, and his having friends in high places (and no, I don’t mean any sort of god…. no god that *I* could call a god would wish to befriend that soul-less piece of shite).
Wade’s blog, you can’t be serious. You’re talking about the arrogant windbag who calls for more research, who calls for understanding and civility, and who calls for restraint. Yet, the funny thing is that he’s pretty much exhibited none of those things himself. I love people who hide their true nature in an effort to plus up blog numbers and to cull adoring sticker-wearing fans.
You’re not wearing one of his stickers right now, are you? I hear there’s a ton left over from Autism 1, in fact the Geiers have a whole roll of them in their Lupron bathroom. John Best Jr. uses rolls of them to TP the houses of those who he thinks should get electric shock therapy.
Great stuff. Great people. Great advice. Yeah!
So long as Erik Nanstiel is injecting his little girl with Lupron, so long as he actively encourages other parents to do the same (and he *is* doing that on autism lists currently as well with the evil Geier videos with their tales of mythical “testosterone sheets”) he has no moral authority, no right to speak about ethics or religion from some imagined superiority.
You need to clean up your act, Erik. You need to stop injecting your daughter with toxic drugs before she is permanently harmed, if she hasn’t been already. You need to take her to a pediatric endocrinologist and get a good evaluation. You need to stop lying to your insurance company and telling them that she has precocious puberty. You need to take down the lying Geier videos and stop shilling for the vulture boys.
I really don’t have time to get into a protracted debate about this, as I simply lack time. I’ll just make a few general points; the idea being put about that there is no connection between the lack of support given to carers and the murders of disabled children by their carers simply defies common sense – never mind ‘research’. And I’m sure that if I had the time I could find some research which demonstrates such a link. In fact I have a friend who might know – more on this later. But the idea that in a sitution where parents are placed under the pressure that they are – having to care for a disabled child and meet all their needs frequently long after the majority of children would have achieved a level of independence, with the expectation of having to continue to do so for the rest of your life with next to no outside support, to face constant barriers at every turn including denial of access to education ( something like a quarter of all autistic kids are excluded from the school system in the UK) – that there are not going to be some who finally snap is just ridiculous. The recent well-documented case of the woman who jumped off the bridge with her son is one example of this.
Speaking of research, I’d love to get a hold of Dick Sobsey’s research in question rather than just reading assertions about it in a Not Dead Yet press release I’d be very grateful. Not that I believe that one research project can conclusively prove anything on its own.
_”the idea being put about that there is no connection between the lack of support given to carers and the murders of disabled children by their carers simply defies common sense”_
You’re not reading what we’re writing. There may well be a link. But by contrast, there _definitely_ seems to be a link between negative press and murder.
The issue is not the link itself. The issue is that its being made in such a way at such a time. They way these articles are phrased is one which would lead people to believe that its ‘acceptable’ or ‘understandable’ to murder kids.
This murder needs to be portrayed as what it is – a murder. Anything else smacks of finding excuses.
Kevin,
To say our families are “close†is an understatement, we are “oneâ€. When I first met you and Megan I saw pure and uncut Love. Our families continue to share our love. In Meg we have another grand-daughter, that makes us wonderfully happy. One day we will hug.
I also see from the messages above that you enjoy the lively art of conversation. I am very proud of you; sound logic and firm belief are very rare commodities these days.
Most of the debate is about different plans of treatment or processes for improvement and yes, there are spirited disagreements. However, the vast majority of people who visit your site seem to put the child’s welfare before all else.
But Katie was murdered. Her situation is not about bio-meds vs. ABA, she was not given the opportunity to have any of those work or not work. People can talk all they wish about the stress of being a care giver. Katie’s care givers were my son and my wife along with a number of other people in North Carolina, they cherish every moment they had with her.
No little child should be murdered! That can’t be rationalized, excused or glossed over in any way. People speak of the “toll of autismâ€; I speak of the “toll of murderâ€. There will be a trial; the court will hear the truth.
Kev, I don’t think people are reading what *I’m* writing. I argued simply that it is legitimate and indeed a good idea for campaigners to point out that the pressure many carers of disabled children face will inevitably lead to murders of this nature. The link exists and should be pointed out. I am not suggesting that there is no link between sympathetic portrayals of parents who kill their disabled children and an increased likelihood of similar murders occuring. Nor am I suggesting that, for instance, lack of respite care leads directly to parents killing their children. People are seeing such basic issues as separate from wider issues of discrimination against disabled kids and their parents, when they are in fact the same thing and really shouldn’t be divided up in the way people are doing.
And as I’ve already said I have not seen *anything* apart from people’s assertions to support the idea that simply highlighting the issue, in and of itself, directly leads to more children dying. I think that it is an entirely speculative proposition and not a basis on which to forbid campaigners from even mentioning that the pressure carers are under makes the murder of disabled kids under their care more likely.
Thank you Mike. ‘close’ is indeed an understatement.
I totally agree Red Aspie! One of the moms in my son’s classroom has an older child who is severely brain damaged and the hoops through which she has to jump to get the most basic help, especially now that her child turned 16 and is officially an “adult” are just ridiculous. I don’t know how she managed to stay sane over the years and certainly, from what she tells me of other parents with older children with similar 24/7 needs, there are enough who break one way or another.
This does not justify murder, this also does not mean that these parents love their children any less, but they do need more support than they are getting.
The issue of support is unquestionable. Parenting someone with special needs is difficult. I’m not ever going to say its not as I’m someone who does it myself. More support is needed.
However as Mike – Katie’s grandpa – says:
_”People can talk all they wish about the stress of being a care giver. Katie’s care givers were my son and my wife along with a number of other people in North Carolina, they cherish every moment they had with her”_
Katie’s murderer was not Katie’s primary care giver. Her ‘stress’ is in my opinion an entire fabrication. To try and associate Katie’s murder with stress suffered as a result of parenting kids with special needs is distasteful, inaccurate and morally questionable.
Ah, this is something I forgot earlier. Now, I must say, I know very little about Katie, her family, her mother and what the reasons were that Katie and her dad went to live somewhere else.
It may be that Katie’s mother really felt relief when the day to day care of Katie was taken off her hands.
Or maybe not.
Maybe it was exactly that what drove her over the edge and estranged her enough from her child to be able to murder her! How can you (per default) assume that being separated from your child does NOT cause suffering in a mother?
Again, I am not trying to excuse or justify what she has done, I am not saying that any parent who is under stress and does not get enough help in the care for his/her high need child should get a carte blanche to murder the child. But I still think discussions about care and support structures for children with special needs is very, very urgent, so that parents don’t fall for the “healing” crowd and manage to adopt the “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it” attitude.
I appreciate the ideas behind your questions Catherina and I agree there’s an urgent need to discuss services (or the lack thereof) I just think that attaching that debate to this debate is not the right thing to do.
Its kind of (to me) like saying ‘discuss poor services with us or we may kill our kids!’ . Its a debate that has merit on its own.
Ok, I understand that! And I understand that Katie’s death should not be used one way or another.
I want to say that I am learning allot from reading this blog and the different links and opinions. Amanda, I loved reading through your website.
I won’t speak to all the issues as I don’t have all the answers. (Although I am getting a much better sense of things as I read more.) Moreover, I am limitting what I say publicly until after the trial.
However there is something I do know, and feel compelled to say.
Eric Said:
“Can’t we just agree that Karen McCarron was suffering from a mental illness exacerbated by stress and leave it at that? She was sick, not evil.”
Eric
I’m sorry I can’t agree to that. I want you to think about these questions:
Why do you want us to agree to this? Are you convinced you know this based on a few phone calls and e-mails with Karen? If you know you don’t have enough information, why then do you want that agreement?
Before this, I did not want to believe that people could be evil. I still don’t “want” to believe it. Nevertheless, Katie’s murder has caused reality to come pounding on the door so loudly I can’t ignore it. Try as I might, I now know too much to go back to that way of thinking. Being a Christian does not require you to pretend evil does not exist.
“Mental illness” did not cause Karen to murder Katie. I think its important that you and others know this.
As to Karen’s motives, I won’t speak to that until the trial.
-Katie’s Uncle Joe
wrong thread ‘aspie’.
Kev.
Kev wrote:
“Adventures in Autism? Nothing
Injecting Sense? Nothingâ€
/sarcasm
Oops, apologies Kev, I must have missed the recent e-mails providing me with the required subject posting list for my blog. I’ve been having e-mail space issues recently, so maybe that’s why they didn’t arrive. Perhaps you could re-send?
I did post on the murder of Katie McCarron and ‘Autism Every Day’, and even managed to tie the thoughts together in an overall summation of views in which I expressed that “I do not believe that there is anything wrong with autistic thought per se, and I am not seeking to cure my daughter of this type of thought.†But I guess I missed the mandatory post requirement on the Judge Rotenberg Centre.
Does this mean I only get a 67%? Are we being graded on a curve? Can I get part marks for linking the two views in the third post I cited? I’m used to being in the 98th to 99th percentile (and yes I know the difference between percent and percentile), so as you can imagine, this recent failure is a crushing disappointment to me. Perhaps I can take a make-up exam to boost my marks?
Just to be a snitch though (maybe I can lower others’ marks to raise my percentile standing), there are a few others who, as far as I can tell, also did not post on the JRC in their blogs:
29 Marbles
Autism Diva
DoC – Autism Street
Not Mercury
Zilari – processing in parts
Estee – Joy of Autism
Bartholomew Cubbins
Maybe we could all do a Saturday morning detention? Perhaps like The Breakfast Club? Can I be Emilio? (I usually get the Anthony Michael Hall role – no red hair though – and would like to try something different.)
/
For the record, I don’t know anything about the JRC, except what I have read on your blog. I do not support the use of electric shock or any aversives on autistic children or adults or any other children or adults. I sincerely believe that all of the others listed, plus Wade and Ginger, share these same views. (In Ginger’s case I’d measure the life expectancy of anyone using aversives on her son in seconds.) If I were to blog on this I have nothing more than that to say. Given limited time, I prefer to write about things that (I think) I have a clue about, rather than follow someone else’s agenda to be politically (autistically?) correct.
I have no issue with judging people on their freely expressed words. But judging people on what they haven’t said, especially in the highly charged community of those connected through autism, is starting to get a bit Orwellian.