People with autism deserve better

I am extremely disappointed with the response of your paper to the calls for a retraction and apology regarding the wildly inaccurate article written by Dr Tony Humphreys (Feelgood).

You say it is his opinion and he has a right to have it aired. My son was born 14 weeks premature in 2006, he has autism spectrum disorder... or autism, which Dr Humphreys implied was a myth. In the first few weeks of my child’s birth, he struggled to survive but against strong odds, he did and he thrived.

As loving parents, we went to every appointment we were offered with specialists to monitor his development, and we followed all recommendations while surrounding our son with love. When our son was diagnosed in 2010 with ASD, we knew we had a hard road ahead. We did not know how hard the road would be and how much of it would be caused by bureaucratic red tape, but the alternative for us could have been a lot harder, knowing the difficulties and disabilities that some extremely premature children endure.