A Book Called I Wish My Kids Had Cancer Slammed By Parents Of Autistic Children

book called i wish my kids had cancer autism
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There is a real book out there called I Wish My Kids Had Cancer: A Family Surviving the Autism Epidemic and you can (but hopefully, won’t) buy it on Amazon. The book, written by Michael Alan, has 145 reviews on Amazon and though 90% are one-star reviews, there are about eleven people who bought the book and liked it (rated it three stars or above on Amazon).

One five-star reviewer wrote, “Being a mother of a 3 year old on the Autism Spectrum … The ‘cancer’ reference may offend some but if you read this book, you understand where the author is coming from and as a mother of a child on the spectrum, I understand. I truly believe that insurance companies and government entities are covering up a lot in regards to the causes of autism for fear of a mass lawsuit — this pertains to vaccinations as well as other potential causes (amalgam fillings, rhoGam shots, environmental items such as household cleaners, pesticides,etc.).”

Another wrote, “At least there’s a little hope with cancer. There’s no hope for children with autism. My daughter has Asperger’s and she’s constantly embarrassing everybody with her lack of social graces. She refuses to participate in any sort of therapy. Medications don’t quiet or calm the symptoms. There’s no palliative for it. She’s always going to be autistic and she’s never going to fit in anywhere, I don’t care how smart she is. At least with cancer there’s a cure or there’s death. Autism isn’t that easy.” Yikes.

The latter comment was screenshotted and posted to Twitter, which inspired some commenters to call for government restrictions on who can have kids.

The book was initially published in the end of 2008 but has recently started making the rounds again when someone posted a critique of it on Twitter, writing, “Shouldve just named your book “I hate my child.” Sadly, some who have experience with people on the spectrum said they “weren’t surprised” that someone would write a book like this — even if it’s terrible.

This isn’t the first time Michael Alan’s book has gotten publicly dragged. In 2014, it caught the attention of a HuffPost contributor, who wrote an article called, “Be Careful What You Wish for, Michael Alan.” The writer’s daughter died of cancer in 2011. Four years ago, it also got a bit of a response from a Reddit thread that called the Amazon reviews for I Wish My Kids Had Cancer “fabulous.”

There are some things that should never be published and someone should’ve told PublishAmerica that this is one of those things. Then again, PublishAmerica may-or-may-not be a scam, so Michael Alan probably got what was coming for him. If the book wasn’t a “sting” manuscript. God, we hope it was.

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