• Replies 22 replies
  • Subscribers 39 subscribers
  • Views 4729 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Should people with Aspergers or others on the autistic spectrum have children?

NAS78513

I've got it mildly (officially anyway, I think I might have been wrongly diagnosed, but that's a different story) and it's only got better as I've got older (some experts do think that it can actually go away as you get older, but again, another story). Even so, it has caused me some problems, especially when I was younger. I have no doubt that my life would've been easier without it. Anyway, I sort of want children but sort of don't, for a few reasons, one of which would be giving it to them (if I've got it, perhaps I'm just a little odd lol). What are the chances that they'd get it, and (this is a bit controversial I know) do you think people with it who have children are selfish? It can and does cause an awful lot of misery.

Parents

  • I absolutely agree with Martin here.

    Fundamentally, I think it's the same decision that non-autistic prospective parents have to answer - in short, can you give a child love and warmth, food and shelter and so forth. If you can't do this then I would seriously think about whether it would be a morally justifiable act to have a child.

    Suffering is a part of human life whether we accept it or not and when we start to think about reducing potential suffering then we start to think about this in terms of utilitarianism which has its own problems. Even then, this suffering has to be counterposed with the happiness that could exist in that child's life.

    Whenever I encounter the argument that autistic people shouldn't have children, there is the tacit assumption that autistic people can't have valuable and happy lives even though we are more likely to experience suffering in the forms of mental health problems for instance.

Reply

  • I absolutely agree with Martin here.

    Fundamentally, I think it's the same decision that non-autistic prospective parents have to answer - in short, can you give a child love and warmth, food and shelter and so forth. If you can't do this then I would seriously think about whether it would be a morally justifiable act to have a child.

    Suffering is a part of human life whether we accept it or not and when we start to think about reducing potential suffering then we start to think about this in terms of utilitarianism which has its own problems. Even then, this suffering has to be counterposed with the happiness that could exist in that child's life.

    Whenever I encounter the argument that autistic people shouldn't have children, there is the tacit assumption that autistic people can't have valuable and happy lives even though we are more likely to experience suffering in the forms of mental health problems for instance.

Children
  • in reply to SpaceOctopus

    There is no safe way to control human reproduction, as any intervention leads down a slippery slope. If you actively discourage autistics from having children, then who else? People prone to any number of debilitating conditions, criminals, people with low IQ, sociopaths etc., the list is potentially very long.