• testfactor@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I mean, this will be used in utero waaaaay before it’s applied to a full adult human. Far easier to change the cells when there are only a few, and they haven’t already started to effect development.

    But it’s hard to get informed consent in utero.

    • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      Imo, then it’s between the parents and the clinicians involved. My son has autism severe enough that it hinders his learning and his social growth and stuff. I go back and forth about whether he’ll have the ability to live independently, or to have a partner and not beat the everloving shit out of them for what seems to be no reason. I love him, AND it’s a burden for everyone in the family, not just him, not just us parents. If given the choice, yes, I absolutely would have chosen to give him the chance at a life where he doesn’t spend every day frustrated by invisible barriers and possibly a life in prison or long term clinical detention (I forget the term) if we can’t get him to manage his physical outbursts by the time he’s an adult.

      • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 day ago

        I have autism and i love it. it’s a significant part of me and i wouldn’t be the same person without. it has caused me some difficulties in life, but has also enabled me a lot of things that would otherwise be impossible.

        i have very much the fear that my mother would have gotten me genetically engineered while in utero too, and i hate the thought of that!

        • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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          1 day ago

          I have ADHD and, given some shared traits with my diagnosed kids, likely autism as well. I like myself the way I am as well, but it’s definitely made my life harder. While it isn’t a disability for me, my wife, or my daughter, it is for my son, to the point where, even as he nears double digit age, we’re still unsure if he’s ever going to be able to participate in society and care for himself independently. I honestly worry, with how free with violence he is*, that he’s going to end up institutionalized or in and out of jail once he gets big enough to actually start hurting people. That’s not a life that I want for him.

          *A specialist broke this down for us. Basically, he gets so frustrated and has no means of dealing with it or communicating the frustration that it manifests as a fight response.

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      Parents consent on behalf of their children all the time. In utero takes that to 11.

    • Bob Robertson IX @discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 days ago

      Could this even be an option in late pregnancy, much less after someone has been born? There are some significant physical changes that could take place… and I can’t imagine what the mental changes would be like to go through.