Asperger's Syndrome Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Asperger's Syndrome, including details on symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, medication.

Asperger syndrome and the supposed obligation not to bring disabled lives into the world.

Walsh P

Centre of Medical Law and Ethics, School of Law, King's College London, Strand, London, UK. patricia.walsh@kcl.ac.uk.

Asperger syndrome (AS) is an autistic spectrum condition that shares the range of social impairments associated with classic autism widely regarded as disabling, while also often giving rise to high levels of ability in areas such as maths, science, engineering and music. The nature of this striking duality of disability and ability is examined, along with its implications for our thinking about disability and the relevance of levels and kinds of disability to reproductive choices. In particular, it may be seen as posing a challenge to John Harris's influential position in reproductive ethics relating to disability. The paper argues that if, as Harris maintains, there is a quite general moral obligation to avoid bringing disabled lives into the world regardless of the level of disability, then AS must be seen as having a strong claim to be exempt from such an obligation. However, a broader critique of Harris's position leads to the conclusion that, in fact, this putative obligation does not exist.

Published 6 September 2010 in J Med Ethics, 36(9): 521-4.
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Articles on Asperger's Syndrome published 30 August 2010:

Reduced Gray Matter Volume of Pars Opercularis Is Associated with Impaired Social Communication in High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders.   Biol Psychiatry.

BACKGROUND:: Recent literature suggests that the inferior frontal gyrus, especially its posterior portion, has an important role in imitation and social reciprocity and in the pathophysiology of their disturbance in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, the structural abnormality of this region has not fully been clarified in subjects with ASD. METHODS:: Here we obtained magnetic resonance images from 13 right-handed men with high-functioning ASD (Asperger disorder [n = 10] or autism [n = ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Asperger's Syndrome published 19 August 2010:

Neuropsychological differences among children with Asperger syndrome, nonverbal learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, and controls.   Dev Neuropsychol, 35(5): 582-600.

Confusion is present as to possible diagnostic differences between Asperger syndrome (AS) and Nonverbal learning disabilities (NLD) and the relation of these disorders to attentional difficulties. Three-hundred and forty-five children participated in this study in 5 groups; NLD, AS, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): Combined type, ADHD: Inattentive type, and controls. The NLD group showed particular difficulty on visual-spatial, visual-motor, and fluid reasoning measures compared ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Asperger's Syndrome published 13 August 2010:

Social competence intervention for youth with Asperger Syndrome and high-functioning autism: an initial investigation.   J Autism Dev Disord, 40(9): 1067-79.

Individuals with high functioning autism (HFA) or Asperger Syndrome (AS) exhibit difficulties in the knowledge or correct performance of social skills. This subgroup's social difficulties appear to be associated with deficits in three social cognition processes: theory of mind, emotion recognition and executive functioning. The current study outlines the development and initial administration of the group-based Social Competence Intervention (SCI), which targeted these deficits using cognitive ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Brief report: should the DSM V drop Asperger syndrome?   J Autism Dev Disord, 40(9): 1146-8.

The DSM IV defines Asperger syndrome (AS) as a pervasive developmental (autistic spectrum) disorder characterized by social deficits and rigid focused interests in the absence of language impairment and cognitive delay. Since its inclusion in the DSM-IV, there has been a dramatic increase in its recognition both in children and adults. However, because studies have generally failed to demonstrate a clear distinction between AS and autism, some researchers have called for its elimination from ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Comorbid psychiatric disorders associated with Asperger syndrome/high-functioning autism: a community- and clinic-based study.   J Autism Dev Disord, 40(9): 1080-93.

The present study identifies the prevalence and types of comorbid psychiatric disorders associated with Asperger syndrome (AS)/high-functioning autism (HFA) in a combined community- and clinic-based sample of fifty 9- to 16-year-old subjects using the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children, Present and Lifetime Version. The level of functioning was estimated using the Children's Global Assessment Scale. The results support common (prevalence 74%) and often ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Asperger's Syndrome published 3 August 2010:

Speech-feature discrimination in children with Asperger syndrome as determined with the multi-feature mismatch negativity paradigm.   Clin Neurophysiol, 121(9): 1410-9.

OBJECTIVE: Asperger syndrome, belonging to the autistic spectrum of disorders, involves deficits in social interaction and prosodic use of language but normal development of formal language abilities. Auditory processing involves both hyper- and hypoactive reactivity to acoustic changes. METHODS: Responses composed of mismatch negativity (MMN) and obligatory components were recorded for five types of deviations in syllables (vowel, vowel duration, consonant, syllable frequency, syllable ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Asperger's Syndrome published 2 August 2010:

The relationship between theory of mind and autobiographical memory in high-functioning autism and Asperger syndrome.   Psychiatry Res, 178(1): 214-216.

The relationship between theory of mind (ToM) and autobiographical memory (AM) in high-functioning autism (HFA) and Asperger syndrome (AS) has never been investigated. Here, we show that ToM abilities could be predicted by levels of AM in HFA and AS as compared to controls, suggesting that difficulties in AM are closely related to ToM impairments in HFA and AS. [Abstract] [Full-text]

Exceptions and anomalies: an ERP study on context sensitivity in autism.   Neuropsychologia, 48(10): 2940-51.

Several studies have demonstrated that people with ASD and intact language skills still have problems processing linguistic information in context. Given this evidence for reduced sensitivity to linguistic context, the question arises how contextual information is actually processed by people with ASD. In this study, we used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to examine context sensitivity in high-functioning adults with autistic disorder (HFA) and Asperger syndrome at two levels: at the ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

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