Jim, I’m not sure how I missed that story but I look forward to reading it. I also think that it’s a very good question to ask whether or not it makes sense to have such an enormous scope under one umbrella term. I’ve seen it hypothesized that ASD might well be 100 different conditions that have similar aspects in the kinds of symptoms that they manifest.

Then there’s the difference between regressive autism and the “just born that way” type. There is no doubt a strong genetic component for all of it, but Hugh had a very specific and dramatic regression and even though we see where others in our family have autism genetics, it’s hard not to wonder about what might his life been like if that regression had never been triggered.

The fact that it’s so incredibly hard to talk about any of this with civility in many instances just compounds it. As you’ve noted, sometimes people’s emotions get completely poked and real dialogue becomes impossible. Fortunately, I know that we don’t have that issue, so I look forward to continued discussion with you.