Your child is not safe as long as aversives and restraint are considered appropriate "treatment" for persons diagnosed with autism. No adult child will be safe after his parents are gone. Thats means YOUR CHILD!!

CONDITIONING IS FOR DOGS NOT CHILDREN!

B.F. SKINNER - Father of Behavior Modification: "It is a serious question in my mind whether there should be individual homes for children - or even whether children should know their own parents. There are undoubtedly much more scientific ways of bringing up children which will probably mean finer and happier children. But if I were to offer to take any mother's child and guarantee it such an upbringing, and were even to convince the mother at the same time that she was unquestionably unfitted to bring up her child - that she would inevitably bring up a weakling, a petted, spoiled, shy youngster who would grow
up a liar and a thief--would she give up the child to me? No, the social pressure to have a child, to own a child, to be known in the community as a woman with a legitimate child is strong - it is a part of our mores..........The home we have wth us--inevitably and inexorably with us. Even though it is proven unsuccessful, we shall always have it. The behaviorist has to accept the home and make the best of it. His task is to try to get the mother to take a new view of what constitutes the care of an infant--of her responsibility for her experiment in child rearing....Parenthood, instead of being an instinctive art, is a science, the details which must be worked out by patient laboratory methods....You can see invalidism in the making in the majority of American homes. Here is the picture of a child over-conditioned in love." (Psychological Care of Infant and Child, John B. Watson)

"BREAKING THE SILENCE": Watson's grandaughter is quoted on the above website as writing, "We couldn't talk about feelings, we couldn't talk about affection......Grandfather's theories infected my mothers life, my life, and the lives of millions. How do you break a legacy? How do you keep from passing a debilitating inheritance down generation after generation like a genetic flaw?" -------It also documents Watson's family as having suicides, depression, stomach problems, chronic headaches, etc.

OUR DISABLED CHILDREN We have heard at CIBRA from mother's who have found their children put in boxes for punishment and closets without windows. Places where food is being used for "reinforcement" and control. Comfort is withheld when children are frantic and crying. The children are being forced fed and tied in chairs and on and on and on! And some parents are given such "plausible" explanations as to why this has to be done that they willingly jump on this outdated damaging bandwagon. Some parents are threatened and even reported to social services if they complain. Many mothers have no choice because there is no other place available to put their child and they have to work. This includes places where restraint and aversives are being used. Behavioral early intervention for autism has broken up families as one parent is convinced by the behaviorists that this is necessary and the other (usually the mother) sees the dangers and resists.

There is information being circulated in the medical community that intrusive behavioral early intervention is not stressful for families. -----This we must protest. For many of us it was more accurately CATASTROPHIC STRESS due to trauma to our children and violation of our rights as parents.

CHILDREN OR LAB RATS?

WHAT PHILOSOPHY OR MORAL SYSTEM WILL TIP THE BALANCE OF THE RISK VS BENEFIT EQUATION?

WILL "QUALITY OF LIFE" DECISIONS VIOLATE THE HUMAN RIGHTS AND SAFETY OF OUR VULNERABLE CHILDREN?

Autism Society of America Stepping Over the Line? Excerpt from the January 1999 newsletter of the ASA: "The National Bioethics Advisory Commission prepared daft report that includes language and categorizations that threaten promising research into autism; the report mis-classifies autism as a 'mental health condition' and prohibits research involving 'more than minimal risk' for individuals who are not capable of informed consent; ASA began work to inform the Commission of its concerns and urges state and local affiliates do the same; ASA testified and orchestrated grassroots letter-writing campaign; results are still pending."

CIBRA COMMENTARY And just WHO will be these individuals "not capable of informed consent" that are experimented on? Children handed over by deperate parents still in shock from the diagnosis, unprotected children who are not under the watchful eye of parents but are in the hands of "the system." Who will they be? Who will decide for THEM that "more than minimal risk" should be taken with their health to transform them into what another wants them to be?

Information found in the same issue of "The Advocate" (Jan/Feb) 99 "Be aware that debate over use of various techniques are often reduced to superficial arguments over who is right, moral and ethical and who is a true advocate for the children." (p. 13)

CIBRA Commentary: While personal posturing may in fact be superficial, issues of what is moral and ethical, in deed what is SAFE for these children, is not! Is the doctor unaware that the community of "experts" on the treatment of autism spectrum disorders is rife with charlatans who promise the moon and deliver only disappointment and heartbreak? Is she unaware of the deaths and injuries among these children - death and injuries inflicted on them by practitioners who never stop and ask themselves "superficial" questions of morality and ethics? Is she unaware of the parents who will be forever tormented by guilt and anguish because they were made to feel foolish if they raised such "superficial' issues and who, as a result, failed to protect their children against some all-knowing "expert" who then proceeded to inflict injury or death on the helpless and the innocent? Well, if she doesn't know about any of these things, please let us be the first to acquaint her with them. On second thought, no -- it isn't possible that she's unaware; its more likely that she simply doesn't care. After all, such concerns and debates are too, well, they're just too "superficial" to worry about, aren't they?

THAT STINKS!

(Hold your nose when you read below)

BAD ADVICE AWARDS Midwest - A mental health professional told a family that they should report their own son with autism to the police (for some of his behaviors) in order to get services. Now they and their son are hostage in the criminal justice system and their nightmare has mushroomed like the atom bomb.

Upper Midwest - A mental health professional adviced a family to abandon their son at a local hospital in order to get services. They would have to live with being charged with "child abandonment" but they would get a placement for the child. The family declined the suggestion.