Any responsible, pro-vax, autism charities?
Hell, they’ve got a picture of Jenny "Indigo Mom" McCarthy’s book right on the friggin banner!
In hopes that they are misinformed about ARI’s agenda, I’m sending them a letter in hopes to steer them toward alternative autism charities that support real science rather than alt-med quackery. Here is the draft of the e-mail I’m writting them:
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Dear Mr. XXX, et al: After reading your announcement launching your 2008 Midnight Charity Project, I admire your company’s efforts in the name of children, and their families, who are struggling with autism. Since I like to have more information about a charity before I decide to make a donation, I did a little research into the American Autism Association. After perusing their web site (http://www.autism.com/) what I found disturbs me greatly and I feel it necessary to communicate my concerns. In my research, I have found that the Autism Research Institute advocates, to one degree or another, various "treatments" (e.g. dietary supplements, chelation, so called "facilitated communication," etc.) that have not–I repeat, have not–been found by any peer reviewed medical research to help children afflicted with autism. ARI’s endorsement of these alleged therapies would draw parents with autistic children from treatments that might actually help them. Even more disturbing is ARI’s dangerous implication that common, not to mention vital, childhood vaccines are a cause of autism, another pseudoscientific claim that has been debunked by the medical community time and time again. Besides spreading this blatant lie about the causes of autism, ARI is endangering the public health in general by convincing parents to avoid vaccinating their children and thus exposing them and others to deadly and debilitating illness like measles and rubella. Rather than see 12 to Midnight give money to an organization that endorses such dangerous quackery (I’m sorry, but that’s the kindest word I can use to describe ARI’s position on the causes and treatments for autism.) I’d like to offer suggestions to more responsible autism research charities such as the National Alliance On Mental Illness (NAMI) or (Insert pro-science autism charities here). These are organizations that support scientifically sound research that may actually provide the help you seek to give those who live with autism. Cordially, |
I would also invite any my fellow skeptics, especially those who are or who have loved ones with autism, in informing 12 to Midnight about ARI in hopes that they change their minds and give their money to a REAL autism research rather than a bunch of New Age woos.