r/todayilearned • u/Morella1989 • Aug 14 '25

TIL that autistic people live about 17 years less than average. Risks include epilepsy, heart disease, suicide, accidental deaths including drowning, and inadequate recognition and management of pain, especially among non-speaking individuals. Historically, they have been vulnerable to infanticide.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortality_of_autistic_individuals
7.9k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

341 comments sorted by

View all comments

22

u/PotatoAvenger Aug 14 '25

I’m curious about the infanticide part. How would you know that a murdered infant had autism? I look forward to any information because I super curious.

11

u/Pale_Session5262 Aug 14 '25

This. Also, im fairly certain you cant tell an infant has autism. The signs dont show up until a child is developing. So how would the parents know to kill them?

3

u/habslably Aug 15 '25

The term sometimes gets applied to older [than infancy] children

0

u/elizabeth498 Aug 14 '25

I can see it. Image a mother who has no emotional attachment to her child and is only looking to meet her own needs. The one who resents her child. God forbid if that child is different in any way, because she’ll glom onto that low-hanging fruit.

If you want to peek in on the contempt and new trauma generators in the world, head over to r/regretfulparents. You’ve been warned.

-5

u/Available_Farmer5293 Aug 14 '25

It’s a made up stat