3 ms·

Do you mean to say that autistic people, or those with autistic traits who are not outright autistic, should not reproduce (with each other), because of the ris

Do you mean to say that autistic people, or those with autistic traits who are not outright autistic, should not reproduce (with each other), because of the risk their children may be autistic?

R0b0t1 5y ago
That's what he is saying, yes. It's a dangerous thing to think because we do not understand if there is actually some hidden purpose to the genes that modulate autistic behavior, same with depression. It's a strange thing to bring up after assortative mating, really. If it comes up in assortative mating it implies there is a reason for the genes to be there. One example: In various experiments related to resource exhaustion, antisocial and/or "autistic" mice were the ones to survive the collapse of mouse society as they were more likely to not be involved over resource squabbles. Of course, there are some people who are very autistic who do not have very happy lives, and some people who are just kind of autistic.
skim_milk 5y ago
No personally, but I think an expert could analyze a couple for pregnancy risks and other issues at least. From what I've read in the past the risk goes up a bit, but not terribly significantly, so it's best to make people at least aware of the risks. Certainly at least not to the extent to force stop people from having kids! I think more than a third of ASD cases were estimated be linked to assortive mating in some studies, which is still a lot of cases that wouldn't happen if we changed out dating strategies! Intuitively this will only get worse with how everyone currently dates - dating until we finds the exact perfect match for our soul. The science is still very speculative but do we want time to tell?
- emodendroket 5y ago
  We know for a fact that if both of your parents have African ancestry you have a higher risk of sickle-cell anemia, and if both your parents are Ashkenazi Jews you have a higher risk of Tay-Sachs. Should they also not be allowed to have children with each other? Frankly I find the notion shocking.
  - User23 5y ago
    There is no ethical alternative to voluntary assortative mating unless you want to legalize nonconsensual sex.
    - emodendroket 5y ago
      Well the other one would be forced sterilizations but that doesn’t sound a lot better.
  - darkerside 5y ago
    I think all anyone is talking about here is awareness of the likelihood. Sounds reasonable to me.

Do you mean to say that autistic people, or those with autistic traits who are not outright autistic, should not reproduce (with each other), because of the risk their children may be autistic?

R0b0t1 5y ago

That's what he is saying, yes. It's a dangerous thing to think because we do not understand if there is actually some hidden purpose to the genes that modulate autistic behavior, same with depression. It's a strange thing to bring up after assortative mating, really. If it comes up in assortative mating it implies there is a reason for the genes to be there. One example: In various experiments related to resource exhaustion, antisocial and/or "autistic" mice were the ones to survive the collapse of mouse society as they were more likely to not be involved over resource squabbles. Of course, there are some people who are very autistic who do not have very happy lives, and some people who are just kind of autistic.

skim_milk 5y ago

No personally, but I think an expert could analyze a couple for pregnancy risks and other issues at least. From what I've read in the past the risk goes up a bit, but not terribly significantly, so it's best to make people at least aware of the risks. Certainly at least not to the extent to force stop people from having kids! I think more than a third of ASD cases were estimated be linked to assortive mating in some studies, which is still a lot of cases that wouldn't happen if we changed out dating strategies! Intuitively this will only get worse with how everyone currently dates - dating until we finds the exact perfect match for our soul. The science is still very speculative but do we want time to tell?

emodendroket 5y ago
We know for a fact that if both of your parents have African ancestry you have a higher risk of sickle-cell anemia, and if both your parents are Ashkenazi Jews you have a higher risk of Tay-Sachs. Should they also not be allowed to have children with each other? Frankly I find the notion shocking.
- User23 5y ago
  There is no ethical alternative to voluntary assortative mating unless you want to legalize nonconsensual sex.
  - emodendroket 5y ago
    Well the other one would be forced sterilizations but that doesn’t sound a lot better.
- darkerside 5y ago
  I think all anyone is talking about here is awareness of the likelihood. Sounds reasonable to me.