What Today Withholds: Autism and Human Rights in America

“I still wake up with the smell of my own flesh burning in my nostrils some nights.” -- A Judge Rotenberg Center Survivor

In What Today Withholds: Autism and Human Rights in America, Megan McLaughlin takes us on a harrowing journey through the institutions that neglect, reject, demean, punish, torture, and even kill autistic people in the United States. Her book reveals autistics' appallingly short life expectancy, the discrimination they face as they go about their everyday lives, and the needless cruelties they endure from early childhood on. What lies behind these abuses? McLaughlin argues that it is our society's continuing refusal to accept autistics as fully human.

What readers are saying:
"Twelve years in the making, What Today Withholds demonstrates deep empathy for the circumstances of autistic people, while offering a detailed and strident--yet constructive--critique of the social barriers autistic people encounter and the perpetuators of these barriers. I am in awe of this book!" -- Nathan Spoon, poet, author most recently of The Importance of Being Feeble-Minded

"This is an extraordinary book that is impressive for its depth, scope, and clarity. . . . Both scholarly and sensitive, this book is highly recommended for educators, employers and policy makers looking to better support the basic human needs and aspirations of autistics of all ages." -- Aaron T. Ebata, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Principal Investigator, The Autism Program at UIUC, Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign