Autism Essay -- Health, Dolphin Assisted Therapies

In a deep, dark blue ocean, an astonishingly beautiful and colorful creature with a crescent moon body shape swims through shimmering waves of light. This mysterious animal goes to a seashore everyday to meet his life-long best friend who, unlike itself, has two legs instead of long, slippery, streamlined flukes. Now, they are sharing one of the best moments in their lives. This is the scene I have always seen in my dream whenever I wish to have a dolphin friend with whom I can freely swim and interact. When I see their eyes, it seems like dolphins are reading my mind, and I also feel like I can read their minds, too. It is uncommon for a person to get an opportunity to interact with that lovely creature and get a feeling of healing. However, some psychologists recommend children with autism to spend some time with dolphins because they believe that a dolphin has psychologically and educationally therapeutic effects. Considering the high number of autistic children in the United Sta tes, I want to delve into, not only how using dolphins in therapies for autistic children in the United States affects their educational abilities, but also how in some ways dolphin-assisted therapies reflect people’s greed to use an innocent creature for their own interest. What is autism? According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, autism is defined as â€Å"a variable developmental disorder that appears by age three and is characterized by impairment of the ability to form normal social relationships† (Webster 65). Whenever I see the definitions of different disorders, I am always curious about the standards of different illnesses. For example, for autism, the definition says that autistic children commonly have difficulty in having normal social relation... ...om drowning† (Williamson 477). Likewise, parents tend to believe that dolphins would save their children from autism. However, does using an animal for our own purposes acceptable? Does DAT, in some aspects, reflect people’s greed to use an innocent creature for their own interest? Cathy Williams, in her article, suggests that â€Å"DAT can present a significant risk to the health and welfare of dolphins used in programs† because unlike autism children, â€Å"their conditions may be neither inspected, nor regulated† (Williamson 477). Furthermore, sometimes the stress of their confinement prevents them from behaving normally and it often makes them ill and results premature death. Dolphins have no freedom. Somehow they are brought to a place where they are â€Å"held in captivity† (Williamson 477). Do humans have a special right to do this to an animal without any permission?