Good thing we're so much further advanced then the folks who bled George Washington.

"Advanced"? What is this, "advanced"?

Can you blame them for trying? Science still knows practically nothing about the treatment/prevention of autism. Given the lack of options parents are clutching at anything that might help.

Leaving blame to one side, if I had known them, I would have argued strongly against this. Themerisol has no connection to autism and any "treatment" based upon the possibility of such a link is snake-oil. All it can do is harm.

There is no treatment for autism, other than years of hard work which sometimes matters quite a bit, but which might not achieve anything.

Does anyone have an answer to why does God plays these tricks on innocents?

It was a secular exorcism. The only thing missing was the pagan witchdoctor dancing around the victim-patient.

erp: True autism shelters its victims from awareness of what their condition costs them. Our horror comes from imagining ourselves cut off from taking joy in human contact, not from any distress the people with autism are experiencing. As we have fewer children, increase our romanticism about our children and focus on the intellectual arts as the only true measure of merit, autism seems a worse and worse curse on the parents. When listening to some parents of autistics, it is hard to avoid a hearing an undertone of, "why did this happen to me."

Dr. Kerry is not a pagan witch doctor, Mr. Ortega, nor was the child a sacrificial lamb.

We took our autistic son to see him back when we were trying anything that might help our son.

We tried chelation as well, but not EDTA or any type of injections. Dr. Kerry typically uses homeopathic remedies.

Our son wasn't helped by the treatments so we discontinued them.

We tried everything to no avail. He is getting ABA therapy and we are happy when he has a good day.

My heart goes out the the little boy's family.

Dr. Kerry is at the forefront of autism research and he knows more about experimental treatments than anyone in PA or OH. He has had excellent results with many patients, but every child is different and results vary.

I have no idea how EDTA could kill someone, I am not a doctor. I do know, however, that Dr. Kerry is a humble man who seeks to heal.

David that's not even close.

The intellectual arts BS is just stupid. I would be happy if he could just talk, much less compose ignorant and insensitive comments on this board.

Our son is oblivious to what he is missing, yes, but his condition affects everyone in the family. If you tire of hearing an undertone of, "why did this happen to me" perhaps you might ponder what inspires such feelings.

My son has caused us to miss out on MANY things normal families take for granted - like eating out or going to the mall without being stared at.

That said, he has been sent to us to teach us what is really important in life and his love is unconditional.

Jack: So, your son is not in distress, but his autism is a terrible burden for your family. I stand corrected.

Chelation is a treatment to remove heavy metals from fatty deposits, no? I believe it is primarily used to help victims of industrial accidents or environmental exposures.

Why would it be recommended for very young children who (may) have received minute amounts of thimerosol? And, if thimerosol is so dangerous, why is it used a preservative in solutions (and eye drops) for contact lens wearers? They are taking drops pretty much on a daily basis.

We can't know what's going on in the minds of autistic children and therein lies the problem. Perhaps they are communicating on some higher plane and feeling compassion for us earthbound creatures who can't access their world.

Whatever the mystery, it goes without saying that parents are heartbroken and seeking help wherever they can find it, and they wouldn't be human if, while dealing with what life brings them, there wasn't a passing thought of why me?

Is there an answer as to why God allows these terrible afflictions to be visited on the innocents among us?

Jim: The theory, such as it is, is that autism is the result of the intersection of two different causes: an overexposure to mercury in vaccination; and a rare genetic inability to flush mercury from the system.

erp: Are you asking why bad things happen to good people?

erp - For the greater glory of God. To teach us to love (no suffering, no love).

I stand corrected. Thank you for supporting my contention that we've elevated the Victim into the Privileged Expert, where everything is permitted to them, where their emotions are paramount, and all their pronouncements must be taken as fact, no matter how useless or damaging.

Yes David I guess I am, and I can't buy pj's contention that suffering is required to lead us to love.

erp writes:

"I can't buy pj's contention that suffering is required to lead us to love."

My son and I are reading _The_Giver_ (reviewed elsewhere on this site). It is, among other things, an eloquent explanation of why love and suffering are inseparable. Thanks once again to OJ for pointing out a book I otherwise would have missed.

The review Ted mentions is here.

As a kid I was an avid reader of science fiction and the theme of utopia as hell ran through a lot of it. Reality is better than marking time in phony sameness. No argument there. Huck Finn and the n-word, kids can handle it because it's not in their reality.

Perhaps the word, suffering, in this context needs to be defined because to say that an autistic child is sent by God to teach us to love is something I can't buy.

"Is there an answer as to why God allows these terrible afflictions to be visited on the innocents among us?"

Matthew 5/45;

"For He maketh the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and unjust."

Ecclesiastes 9/2;

"All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous and the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean...."

He has arranged this world in such a way that "time and chance happens to them all..." because it is ours--the good and the evil. His rewards for the righteous and his punishments for the wicked He reserves for His world.

erp: Up the page, I quote William Samual Johnson's Prayer for Peace:

And there was war and peace, and peace and war,
Full year and lean, joy, anguish, life and death,
Doing their work on the evolving soul,
The soul of man in God and God in man.
For death is nothing in the sum of things,
And life is nothing in the sum of things,
And flesh is nothing in the sum of things,
But man in God is all and God in man,
Will merged in will, love immanent in love,
Moving through visioned vistas to one goal-
The goal of man in God and God in man,
And of all life in God and God in life --
The far fruition of our earthly prayer,
Thy will be done!" . . . There is no other peace!

erp,

At 4 1/2 I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that has never gone into "remission". It has been constant all these years. At times it could be painful becuase of treatments that were administered for it. Plus, it wasn't exactly peaches and cream having comments made about my appearance. I used to think that my condition was a curse and I couldn't understand "why me". I hated what was happening and I hated God as well. Now that I am older and a little more mature I realize that I was given a gift. I realize that I got off pretty easy. I could have gotten an horrible disease or I could be dead. Having this condition has taught me a lot about my self and other people as well. The lessons I have learned are too numerous to recount here. Let's just say that I feel blessesd and I wouldn't trade what has happened (the good, the bad and the ugly) for anything. Who knows, maybe that was the plan all along?

God rains down the good and the bad indiscriminately and dealing with what we've been sent, i.e., suffering, teaches us to love? I'll need to give that some thought.

Thanks everybody for helping me out with this.

eam. You sound like a friend of mine. Did you live in Vermont about twenty years ago?

Posted by: erp at August 26, 2005 4:51 PM

erp,

I have lived in Tennessee all my life.