Genetics, Excuses, and Myths
April 28, 2006 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
While we do not know exactly what causes autism, there are many theories, from mercury in vaccines to environmental toxins to the discounted “refrigerator mother” theory to genetics. A recent post by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei at Genetics and Health on Using Genes as an Excuse prompted me to think about why, in my circle, people have tended to be unwilling to simply say that “autism is genetic.”
“It’s genetic.”…………
On the one hand, [this excuse] shows that genetics is very much on people’s minds nowadays. On the other hand, it is a fundamental misunderstanding of genetics and inheritance. Just because a trait is influenced by genes doesn’t mean you have no control over it. Genes do not act alone. Gene activity is moulded by behavior and vice versa. You have a choice to alter how you and your body cope with your genes.
……… At some point, though, genetic technology will make it possible to fiddle around with our genes. When that happens, will we still have the excuse that we can’t help ourselves because of our genes?
Generation Rescue lists the claim that “autism is genetic” as its “myth #1″ and states that “Autism is mercury poisoning“:
No autism gene has ever been found and the search will be endless – how can you have a gene for a mythical condition?
I consider the “autism-causing refrigerator mother” to be a “mythical condition.” I consider autism, as in what Charlie has or is or is said to be, plenty real, certainly more than “mythical beasts” such as unicorns and Sphinxes, or than “mythical places” such as the lost city of Atlantis.
As for a potentially “endless” search for the autism gene that has not “ever been found”: I teach and write about ancient Greek and Latin literature and there are many, many documents from the ancient world that have not “ever been found” and for which the search will probably be “endless.” We only have seven plays by the Greek tragedian Sophocles (author of Oedipus Rex), out of the 123 that he wrote, and who knows but we may find a new one in the sands of Egypt. But that does not mean that we can say that those 116 plays (or a gene or genes for autism) do not exist because we cannot find them.
Excuses, excuses.
Jim and I do think that autism–in the case of Charlie–has a genetic basis. Environmental and evolutionary factors are other likely factors. We do not think that a vaccine caused Charlie to “become” autistic.
We do know that we are proud to be Charlie’s parents.
I actually am more and more finding “autism” mythical, but “autistic people” real. Autism being mythical not because autistic people don’t exist, but because autism is just an abstractified version of autistic people, rather than a thing.
I like the distinction–autism is an “ism”–though I’m wondering if the Generation Rescue and other curbie folks mean “myth” in the same way.
The last time I talked to Jared’s neurologist at Kennedy Krieger (Andrew Zimmerman, MD), he seemed to say that autism is caused in utero by an auto-immune reaction, and that there may be some genetic predisposition for said reaction. But that it was just a theory. (Not a myth, mind you.)
There’s a non-paraphrased version at his site:
http://www.kennedykrieger.org/kki_staff.jsp?pid=1068
And I just want to mention somewhere that I was proud to see his name signed on the letter to the NYTimes protesting Generation Rescue’s misleading ad:
http://neurodiversity.com/weblog/article/85/
I don’t know if his research will bear fruit or even if he’s on the right track, but I know that it’s a) evidence-based, and b) a lot more sensible than mercury-hysteria.
The theory that autism is caused in utero and due to a genetic predisposition to a reaction (as the auto-immune one you mention) is what we think is the case with Charlie. I feel certain that Charlie, when he was inside of me in those first 9 months, was distinctly the Charlie of today. He used to bend his body (his back would arch) in a way that he still does when he is upset, or seeks comfort.