I absolutely agree with this sentiment. But. There are a lot of people with, for example, autism for whom it is absolutely a disorder. Who cannot speak, or use the bathroom on their own. Who need 24-hour care. Who, when they are fully grown, express their anger and frustration at their condition by physically assaulting their caregivers. We need to make room for the idea that there is more than one way for people to think and feel and be in the world, while also recognizing that some of those ways of being render those people incapable of taking care of themselves, or put those people (or the people that love them) in harm's way.

Instead of putting millions a year into investigating or into finding more candidate genes for autism, put that money into investing in ways to give autistic people happier, healthier, and safer lives. What if we were innovating in ways that made life better for the autistic people who are already here, instead of innovating in ways that were purely to prevent more autistic people from being born?

At the same time, a parent on our arts mini school's Whatsapp recently tried to argue that the mini school parents should ask the province for more money because the school supports "neurodiverse" children. Apparently in the left coast Canadian lingo now, having an interest in something outside applied sciences is "neurodiverse". Sigh. (I mean, in the broadest sense of everyone likes different things so that's "neurodiverse", sure....but that's not where she was going, she was trying to argue a kid interested in the arts is on the spectrum, which...is this where we've landed as a society?)