Actress Talks About Autism

Actress Jenny McCarthy talks about her son's battle with autism in the current issue of Us Weekly. McCarthy's new book "Mother Warriors: A Nation of Parents Healing Autism Against All Odds" chronicles other families' stories of struggles with autism as well as the progress of her son. McCarthy has drawn a lot of controversy on her views that link infant immunizations and the disease. Currently the CDC does not support McCarthy's view. In other autism-related news, Time magazine recently reported autism advocates are fighting for health care coverage of the disease.

Comments

[todd a]

I haven't read the article but it seems to tout McCarthy's "cure" for her son. Wired ran an interesting story earlier this year that explored the suggestion that autism is not a "disease" to be "cured": http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-03/ff_autism.

"This movement is being fueled by a small but growing cadre of neuropsychological researchers who are taking a fresh look at the nature of autism itself. The condition, they say, shouldn't be thought of as a disease to be eradicated. It may be that the autistic brain is not defective but simply different — an example of the variety of human development. These researchers assert that the focus on finding a cure for autism — the disease model — has kept science from asking fundamental questions about how autistic brains function."