Filicide is Not a Feature of Autism.
Every time an autistic child is deliberately killed by a parent (known as filicide, committed usually a mother) there are usually 2 polarized reactions that I see in the autistic community. The first is a chorus of parents saying "Don't judge. Parenting is hard. The situation was hard." The opposing is to say "Autism is NEVER a reason to murder a child." And it isn't a reason. But there are many parents who murder their children, often in a murder/suicide attempt, whose children do NOT have autism. And I thought 'What do these people share in common?' Because there must be commonality there. And perhaps we are having the wrong discussion. Instead of asking about the children's characteristics, perhaps we should be addressing the perpetrators' characteristics. And then formulating a plan to address them. We discuss primarily mothers because they are the most likely to be the primary caregivers and males murder/suic...