Researchers at the Autism Consortium in Boston, as well as at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, have located a chromosomal link to autism that could lead to genetic testing for the disorder. The Boston group found that children with a duplicated or missing segment of chromosome 16, which appears to control certain brain functions, have a risk for autism 100 times greater than normal. The Toronto researchers plan to offer DNA testing as soon as they can.

While a DNA test done on a newborn baby would be of tremendous benefit in obtaining early intervention and therapy for the child, thus fostering a much better outcome, the test could also determine if a fetus is affected. That opens up a Pandora’s box of potential for selective abortion of these fetuses.

Autism is not just one condition; it is a wide gamut of them, with not only a broad range of symptoms of communications and social dysfunctions, but within that range of symptoms, there are also wide degrees of impairment.

At the higher functioning end of the autism spectrum are individuals with Asperger’s syndrome and, while they often suffer various social impairments, they are usually highly intelligent and productive people. For example, some scientists think that Mozart’s unsurpassed musical genius was an indication that he may have been autistic.

The danger with a prenatal test is that it will create a situation in which the value of an individual’s life will be determined based on assumptions about his or her cognitive functions.

It is not just that future Mozarts could be terminated, but that the value of any person lies in his or her intrinsic humanity, not in gradations of intellectual ability or chromosomal misfirings.

The richness and joy that an individual brings to his or her family, friends and the larger world are measured not by intelligence levels, cognitive disabilities or any other limitation. The only thing that counts is the uniqueness of that person, made up of all the traits and qualities that have never been found in any other human in just such a combination.

The runaway pace of medical technology will force us to decide what kind of society we want — one where each individual has inviolable value, or one where the vulnerable who are most in need of our care and concern are weeded out because we can’t see past their “defects” to the person beneath.

The debate can be put off no longer.

Calgary Herald http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/theeditorialpage/story.html?id=f44c994a-54d1-4e1c-b772-42b8e4e491a9