Life being hard doesn't give you a pass to kill your autistic child
Did that headline make you sick? Do you know what will churn your stomach even more? Google "Number of autistic children killed by their parents". Look at the faces, the names and the numbers just in the last year alone. It's sickening. And equally sickening is the aftermath; the excuses for the parent and the sympathy. Not sympathy for the murdered child, mind you, but sympathy for the overstressed parent who murdered the child. And, sadly, when a disabled child is killed even the ensuing trial becomes more about the parent's struggle raising an autistic child rather than about justice for the victim.
Every time one of these tragedies is reported I try to understand the logic behind all of the "This is awful, but it is really hard" comments. And I wonder if maybe someone who has felt desperate and out of control and helpless as a parent to an autistic child is sympathizing with the feelings that could lead up to such an evil act, but not excusin…
Every time one of these tragedies is reported I try to understand the logic behind all of the "This is awful, but it is really hard" comments. And I wonder if maybe someone who has felt desperate and out of control and helpless as a parent to an autistic child is sympathizing with the feelings that could lead up to such an evil act, but not excusin…
