CLAIMS BY a prominent psychologist that parents were in some way responsible for their children’s autism by exhibiting a lack of love have been described as “outrageous” by Minister for Health and Children Dr James Reilly.
Dr Reilly, who has a 25-year-old autistic son, said Dr Tony Humphreys’s remarks were a slur on parents with autistic children.
“It was utterly outrageous. The hurt that he caused people is absolutely astonishing,” he said.
Dr Humphreys drew an angry response from many parents of autistic children in a column in the Irish Examinerlast week. He referred to a study purporting to show higher levels of autism in the children of parents involved in mathematics and science.
He said the researchers had missed the “glaringly obvious fact that if the adults they researched live predominantly in their heads and possess few or no heart qualities, their children will need to find some way of defending themselves against the absence of expressed love and affection and emotional receptivity”.
Dr Reilly said Dr Humphreys compounded his original offence by going on the Marian Finucane Showon RTÉ radio and stating that parents need not worry that autism had a genetic component.
“Another utter insult to parents. I say this to parents, let nobody set a limit on your child’s horizon,” the Minister said in an interview on TV3 News. “If one of your children has a problem with autism and the others don’t, it is not your parenting skills that are the issue.”
Dr Reilly’s son Jamie is now 25 and recently graduated from TCD with an honours degree in genetics. Both father and son spoke at a recent international conference on autism in Galway.
Dr Humphreys could not be contacted last night. He told TV3 that he regretted causing any offence, but did not regret speaking what he believed was the truth.
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