A verdict has been reached in the trial of Karen McCarron. A jury has found her guilty of murdering her three year old daughter, Katie McCarron. She is going to prison for a very long time.
Katie was autistic. From the accounts that I have read she appears to have been a lively, happy child who was loved and accepted by all, all that is except her mother. In what must have been a terrible ordeal Katie’s grandmother told the court that,
Karen McCarron became very detached from the child in the months leading up to her May 13, 2006, death.
“She wouldn’t even call (Katie) by her name toward the end. She would just call her ‘the kid,’” she said.
Gale McCarron also told the jury Karen McCarron suggested institutionalizing the girl and said she would rather have a child with cancer than autism.
“Karen once said to me, ‘If Katie had cancer, I could deal with it. But I’ll never accept autism,’” Gale McCarron said.
That last statement is particularly poignant for me. I recently shared a week with my son visiting my mother in hospital. She has an inoperable cancer. He has autism. The two are not even remotely comparable.
Cancer is no respecter of persons. Even the most perfect can be brought down by it. The idea of a perfect daughter struck down by cancer was manageable for Karen McCarron. But the idea of a perfect daughter made imperfect by the actions of her mother was too much to bear. And Karen McCarron believed that she was guilty of causing Katie’s autism because she allowed Katie to receive her childhood vaccinations. She was influenced in her belief by David Ayoub, a part time radiologist who believes that
“the certainty of the science supporting mercury as a major cause of autism is probably more overpowering than the science behind any other disease process that I studied dating back to medical school.”
He also believes, based on his conversations with Karen McCarron, that,
“She was very dedicated to trying to get treatment for her daughter. I’ve met with a lot of parents who are dealing with autistic children, and she was one of the most loving mothers.”
Whenever I write about autism acceptance I get comments from parents who tell me that it is possible to separate your love for your child from your determination to fight their autism. But the message I get from Dr Ayoub’s remarks is that you measure love by your determination to fight their autism. Instead of separation we get a dangerous confluence.
Karen McCarron felt compelled to cure her daughter’s autism in order to assuage her own guilt. When the cures espoused by Dr Ayoub failed she sought to free Katie from her autism by killing her.
“Maybe I could fix her this way, and in heaven she would be complete,” she told police during the interview two days after Katherine “Katie” McCarron’s death.
Her inability to love and cherish and find joy in a child who did not meet her requirements for perfection speaks to a profound disorder within Karen McCarron. Her imagined guilt for causing her child’s autism is secondary to this. Her final, desperate act was an attempt to ease her own suffering, not her daughter’s. It was a selfish act. Her plea of insanity has been dismissed. She is guilty of murder in the first degree.
Let us all join in hoping that this decision brings closure to Katie’s family; father Paul, sister Emily and grandparents Mike and Gale. May they find the strength to master their grief at Katie’s death and anger at the manner of her passing. May they find peace and draw comfort from their memories of her joyful life.
January 18th, 2008
Posted by
Mike |
Uncategorized |
10 comments
The Wall Street Journal has published a very informative article about Autism in China. As in many Asian societies, attitudes to disability are mixed. Having a disabled child is seen by some as a sign that a couple have not led a virtuous life. This is reflected in official government policies which give low priority to resourcing services and provision for all disabilities. Hidden disabilities like autism are especially disadvantaged.
The response from parents has been to do it themselves. The article features a Ms. Ma who has given up a comfortable middle class existence, selling her apartment and using all of the family’s savings in an effort to provide a school for her autistic daughter. She is now embarking on a project to establish an adult community so there is somewhere for her daughter to go when she is dead.
This story is both illuminating and inspiring. It serves to illustrate the fact the autism is perceived differently and treated differently depending on the societal framework in which it is placed. These cultural differences form part of the subject of Richard Roy Grinker’s excellent book, Unstrange Minds, which was probably the best autism book I read in 2007.
January 10th, 2008
Posted by
Mike |
Autism, parents |
4 comments
Science Based Medicine is a new blog that promises to explore “issues and controversies in the relationship between science and medicine.” It has got off to a good start with posts about the false dichotomy between the beneficial effects of natural plant remedies and those nasty chemical based drugs, homeopathy, an excellent book review that discusses a recent book by R. Barker Bausell: Snake Oil Science: The Truth About Complementary and Alternative Medicine and, finally a discussion of yet another paper that debunks the mercury/autism hypothesis. Mercury in vaccines as a cause of autism and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs): A failed hypothesis
I heartily recommend it to you all. Family matters preclude me from writing substantial posts at the moment. But I will continue to recommend other blogs and autism resources to keep you going in the interim.
January 8th, 2008
Posted by
Mike |
Autism, Uncategorized, mercury, science |
no comments
