This evening debate at the Houses of Parliament was organised by the Progress Educational Trust (PET), and was supported by the Wellcome Trust and by Parliamentary sponsor Dr Evan Harris (then Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Oxford West and Abingdon). The event marked the launch of the PET project Spectrum of Opinion: Genes, and a synopsis of the proceedings forms part of the School Resource Pack created by PET as part of this project.

2009 saw media furore over the prospect of genetic testing for autism. Simon Baron-Cohen, an expert in autism and its possible biological causes, warned that a future prenatal test for autism might (at best) threaten to eliminate talents associated with the autism spectrum from society and (at worst) constitute eugenics. Ensuing discussion revealed uncertainties, tensions and outright misconceptions in our understanding of autism. More than this, it demonstrated that divergent conceptions of autism, and divergent interpretations of the relationship between genetics and psychology, are promulgated by experts in different fields. How to disentangle the many aspects of autism, and address it coherently?

This public debate sought to clarify the genetic and non-genetic aspects of autism, with experts presenting the latest thinking on autism from a range of contrasting perspectives, and a particular focus on the concept of the 'spectrum' and the challenges it throws up. The upshot of the 'spectrum' concept as applied to autism has been that this diagnostic category now encompasses an enormous range of individuals, from those with 'classical' autism as conceived by Leo Kanner, to those with 'high-functioning' autism as conceived by Hans Asperger. Although Kanner and Asperger were contemporaries, it is only during the past two decades that the syndrome to which Asperger gave his name has enjoyed wide recognition and prominence.

Speakers

• Simon Baron-Cohen
  Professor of Developmental Psychopathology and Director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge

• Dr Michael Fitzpatrick
  Author and General Practitioner at Barton House Health Centre

• Dr Elisabeth Hill
  Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Goldsmiths University of London

Chair

• Jeremy Turk
  Professor of Developmental Psychiatry at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry and at St George's University of London

Partners and supporters

• Dr Evan Harris

• 

Related articles

From PET's BioNews website

• From autism to Asperger's syndrome
  By Sandy Starr (Communications Officer at PET)

• The genetics and sociology of the autism spectrum
  By Dr Michael Fitzpatrick (Author and General Practitioner at Barton House Health Centre)

• Studying autism genetics responsibly
  By Simon Baron-Cohen (Professor of Developmental Psychopathology and Director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge)

• Genetics and autism: untangling the debate
  By Richard Ashcroft (Professor of Bioethics at Queen Mary University of London)

• Autism spectrum disorder as a lifelong condition
  By Dr Elisabeth Hill (Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Goldsmiths University of London)

• Rare genetic variants found to play role in development of autism
  By Sandy Starr (Communications Officer at PET)

• Understanding the autism spectrum
  By Dr Elisabeth Hill (Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Goldsmiths University of London)

• Autism linked to maternal grandmother's age
  By Charlotte Maden (Volunteer Writer at BioNews)

• Unnatural selection?
  By Helen Keeler (author and actress)

• Mental health needs more research
  By Fenno Outen (Head Occupational Therapist for Newham at East London NHS Foundation Trust)

Buy Autism and Asperger Syndrome by Simon Baron-Cohen from Amazon UK or Amazon USA, and buy Defeating Autism: A Damaging Delusion by Michael Fitzpatrick from Amazon UK or Amazon USA.