13 July 2007
Dear Sir,
We feel strongly that Andrew Wakefield (I will not back down…, 8 July) should, as a health professional in the public eye, give more consideration to his use of language when discussing the sensitive issues surrounding autism and children.
Nobody can deny the challenges and difficulties involved in bringing up a child on the autistic spectrum. However, to describe such a child as “ruined” is at best inaccurate and emotive and at worst offensive to the thousands of people who live with autism.
During the course of our work we have come across many parents of children on the autistic spectrum who would take great issue with Dr Wakefield’s assertion that “part of them has been destroyed.” Every child, no matter what their difficulties, should be treated as in individual with equal value to anyone else, rather than something broken or inferior. Many children on the autistic spectrum will go on to live lives of fulfilment and achievement. The world would be a poorer place without them.
Alison Giraud- Saunders
Co-Director
The Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities
Return to Letters
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
