What are two noted autism controversies?

Most people are aware of many controversies surrounding autism today, as well as those that abounded in the 1960s asserting the fault of mothers in causing the condition. Other major controversies have centred on the MMR vaccine and the use of mercury in vaccines. More recently, debates have exploded over whether autism can truly be defined as an illness or medical condition, or whether it is in fact merely a variation in the normal human condition. Thus, when the history of the concept of autism is fully explored and examined, one should not be surprised at the level of controversy and the impassioned arguments that have been, and still are, made about it. Autism, and its association with a wider model of social development in children, has always lent itself to controversy and intense debate about what those who purport to advance any theory of it are actually arguing. It has been open to such debate because it defines such an important and vital part of the theory of psychological development. It has always been a conduit for wider social anxieties because of the presumptions made about its potential to describe the origins of social development. To take on so much theoretical baggage could never have been easy.