Vaccines don't cause Autism. REALLY?

During my lunch break yesterday, I stumbled across this news link.  Another research done debunking the myth that vaccines cause autism.

So I spoke to my Mumsie yesterday, who got all three of her children immunised.  Apparently I had the same reaction to vaccines as my siblings, which was feeling a bit crook and having a bit of a temperature.  If vaccines really were the cause of my Aspergers, then wouldn't my siblings have also been affected?  As it stands, my two older siblings are much more socially integrated and typical than what I am.  Part of me feels guilty that I haven't been able to be the optimal big sister to them, and I wonder sometimes if that also has had an impact on them.

In fact, in my case, there's definitely a case for Autism and Aspergers being genetic.  I have three siblings - one who has the same parents (non-autistic male), one who shares my mother (non-autistic female) and one who shares my father (autistic female).  It makes me wonder too if my brother could be a carrier for an Autistic gene, and whether that's something he's going to have to think about.

Even if Autism was caused by vaccines, would you really prefer your children dead or seriously ill over Autistic?  There's a lot of support out there for Autistic families, such as:

www.wrongplanet.net
www.autismqld.com.au
www.autismsa.org.au
www.autismspeaks.org

meaning that Autism, while certainly not optimal, doesn't have to be the sentence it once was.  Yes, it might mean you end up with a child whose lifes ambition is to serve on the Brisbane Lions cheersquad and have as many cats as physically possible, it might mean you end up with a child who can't speak but who is obsessed with dinosaurs who eventually becomes a archaeologist, or a child who simply makes it by.  But then again, there are children without personality disorders who go on to do those things too, so in the end does it really make a difference?