Change.org and ASAN have a petition that requires your timely attention. In a last-minute divulgence of information the CDC have proposed a new category of medical diagnosis that is apparently designed to facilitate the use of restraints and seclusion on autistic children and adults. The new proposed category is "wandering" behaviour, which seems absurd to me as a medical diagnosis.
The idea of wandering behaviour being categorized as a mental illness brings to mind a patently absurd and politically-motivated category of mental illness that was applied to black slaves in the 1850s in the United States. The name of this pseudoscientific diagnosis was "drapetomania" and it caused black slaves to desire to flee from captivity. No, truly, I am not making this up.
If you care about disability rights, you should read and consider this petition and the associated letter. If you care about the proper practice of science and medicine and psychiatry and you care about diagnostic categories having a proper basis in scientific evidence, you should read and consider this petition and the associated letter. This is an urgent matter with a definite deadline for action. Please take a look now.
Tell the CDC "No" on Abuse-Enabling "Wandering" Code!
http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-the-cdc-no-on-abuse-enabling-wandering-code#?opt_new=t
Wikipedia contributors (accessed 2011) Drapetomania. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Drapetomania&oldid=417856976
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