Lenny Schafer

Lenny Schafer is the adoptive parent of an autistic child. He is the editor of the "Schafer Autism Report", an autism publication that has generated controversy from the autism rights movement.cite news |last=Harmon |first=Amy |title=How About Not 'Curing' Us, Some Autistics Are Pleading |date=December 20, 2004 |publisher=New York Times | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/20/health/20autism.html |accessdate=2007-11-07] He was a recipient of the Doug Flutie Jr. Award—given in honor of Doug Flutie Jr., the son of New England Patriot, Doug Flutie—who has autism. The award is presented annually "to a person who is devoted to research and treatment for individuals on the autism spectrum". [cite press release|url=http://www.massgeneral.org/news/releases/050505bauman.html|title=Director of MGHfC autism clinic receiving special recognition from the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation |publisher=Massachusetts General Hospital|date=May 5, 2005|accessdate=2007-11-25]

Autism rights movement

Schafer's main disagreement with the autism rights movement is that, unlike Schafer, the movement does not consider autism a disability, and does not support treatment or a cure for autism. Further, Schafer rejects the notion of autistic self-advocacy outright, arguing that anyone with the ability to speak for themselves cannot possibly be autistic.Fact|date=November 2007 Schafer asserts that referring to Asperger's as autism trivializes what he calls "real" autism. However, both Asperger syndrome and autism are classified as autism spectrum disorders in the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, DSM-IV, the primary reference source for doctors.

"If those who raise their opposition to the so-called oppression of the autistic would simply substitute their usage of 'autism or autistic' with 'Asperger's,' their arguments might make some sense," said Schafer.

Response from the autism rights movement

Autism rights activists have responded that Schafer has not met them and they don't believe Schafer can diagnose them as "Asperger's" instead of "autistic" over the Internet. Some activists believe the differences between Asperger's and autism are not significant enoughFact|date=November 2007 and that those who are diagnosed as "Asperger's" can still claim to be autistic. There are also some activists who believe that autism and Asperger's don't have any differences at all. MostFact|date=November 2007 autism rights activists believe Schafer is only trying to use the word "Asperger's" as an excuse to ignore the viewpoints of autistics he doesn't agree with. They also believe that Schafer's request for documentation of an autism diagnosis is an unreasonable privacy violation.

References

External links

* http://www.sarnet.org