Two prayers....

God's will be done and may He have mercy upon us all.

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A Catholic who follows Rome & the Magisterium. I'm against gay "marriage", abortion, embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia, human cloning. Altar girls, Communion in the hand, Eucharistic Ministers and "Protestant" music in the Church doesn't bother me at all. A proud American retired submarine sailor. Our borders should be secured with a 10 ft. high fence topped by concertina wire with minefields out to 20 yards on both sides and an additional 10 yards filled with warning signs outside of that Let's get energy independent NOW! Back Israel to the max, stop appeasing followers of the Pedophile Prophet. Pro 2nd Amendment, pro death penalty, Repeal all hate crime legislation. Back the police unless you'd rather call a hippie when everything hits the fan. Get government out of dealing with education, childhood obesity and the enviornment. Stop using the military for sociological experiments and if we're in a war don't micromanage their every move. Kill your television, limit time on the computer and pick up a book. God's will be done and may He have mercy upon us all.

Friday, April 23, 2010

An example of tabloid journalism...

...can be found right here;
Study Confirms Link Between Autism and Use of Cells From Abortions in Vaccines

I've two autistic sons, aged six and five. Being married to an RN gives me access to insights not available to most other folks with autism in their family. So I know my kids exhibited the disorder LONG before any vaccines were given. End of story.

But for one hell of a lot of people this will scare them away from vaccinating their kids. No I don't advocate the nonchalant use of vaccines obtained via aborted fetuses, no matter how long ago the strain was produced. But Catholic bioethicists who are in accord with the Magisterium have concluded the use of these vaccines are acceptable if no others are readily available. There is also a healthy amount of doubt about the extent aborted fetuses have been used for these medicines.

One of the recurring horror stories I hear is how parents refusing to properly vaccinate their children puts them at risk for disease. This doesn't just happen amongst the poor, as a matter of fact the wife observed quite a few upper middle-class children who had missed scheduled inoculations when she worked at a private practice some years back. It's reprehensible to place a child, especially an infant, at risk.

IMO the honchos at LifeNews.com should have held off on publishing the linked story until there was absolutely no question about the link of autism to vaccines. This story is irresponsible and on a lower level than the tabloids I sighted yesterday telling me about Oprah's supposedly gay lifestyle.

Parents of autistic children spend a fair amount of time wondering what they might have done wrong. I know this not only from my own experience but also from listening to other denizens of the waiting room for the therapists my kids see.

Let me put aside the macho mask for a moment to say it straight & plain; I pray daily for the safety and wellbeing of my children. I worry constantly of how they'll cope after I die (and at 57 yrs. of age, I'll probably kick the bucket long before their mother. Maybe before they've matured to any real degree. That would be true regardless of circumstances but autism just makes it worse). My mind spends one hell of a lot of time hoping my boys will "grow out" of this condition in at least a small degree (and they're high functioning, I'd hate for them to be as bad as many I've seen lately). Autism sucks, it isn't cute and it isn't "just another cross to bear" because that cross is being borne by innocents who wander confused and scared through a world they're at a loss to comprehend.

"News" stories of this sort are irresponsible and abhorrent.

They're abhorrent because they feed directly into the guilt many parents carry at the back of their minds. The fact is NOBODY is certain as to what causes the disorder. There could be multiple factors, there could be single as-yet undiscovered cause. As I've already said, my children exhibited the symptoms of it long before they received any vaccines mentioned in the linked article. Until there is an undeniable link to this scourge the self-appointed disseminaters of vital news need to just STFU and wait like the rest of us for more reliable information.

Just my opinion. Thanks for listening.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good input there, Chief. What are your boy's ages?

Subvet said...

Cliff, six and five. They're 16 months apart. Thanks for the compliment.

bedfordshire said...

My heart-felt sympathies--as a mom of a child diagnosed with high-functioning Asperger's I feel some of your pain. My girl's got a good prognosis, she's bright, but I too fear for the way she'll be taken advantage of because she doesn't understand the way society will treat those who are too eccentric or unconventional. To say nothing of what will happen when she starts dating...

On the hopeful side, maybe your wife can determine whether there's anything to Dr. John Cannell's claims of an association between ASD and vitamin D levels. My science background isn't quite good enough to vet his work. At least he's not banging the vaccine drum!

May God bless you and your kids!

Subvet said...

bedforshire, thanks for the thoughts. My kids are fairly high functioning, there are a lot worse.

But I DO worry about them. Especially lately as I see our healthcare system become an exercise in beancounting.

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