REFLECTIONS ON ‘AUTISTIC INTEGRITY’

Autism, particularly its moderate to severe forms, has prompted considerable scientific study and clinical involvement because the associated behaviours imply disconnections with valued features of a ‘good’ life, such as close relationships, enjoyment, and adaptability. Proposed causes of autism inv...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Russell, Barbara (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Wiley-Blackwell 2012
In: Bioethics
Year: 2012, Volume: 26, Issue: 3, Pages: 164-170
Further subjects:B Ethics
B Autism
B Integrity
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Summary:Autism, particularly its moderate to severe forms, has prompted considerable scientific study and clinical involvement because the associated behaviours imply disconnections with valued features of a ‘good’ life, such as close relationships, enjoyment, and adaptability. Proposed causes of autism involve potent philosophical concepts including consciousness, identity, mind, and relationality. The concept of autistic integrity is used by Barnbaum in The Ethics of Autism: Among Them, But Not of Them to help provide moral justification to stop efforts to cure adults with autism, especially if the cause is presumed to be a lack of a theory of mind.1 This article has two goals: (1) to apply four familiar definitions or characterizations of integrity to the case of moderate to severe autism, and (2) to examine whether autistic integrity does provide the moral justification Barnbaum seeks.
ISSN:1467-8519
Contains:Enthalten in: Bioethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8519.2010.01827.x