INTRODUCTION:
In Brazil, the health and education systems face challenges in managing Autism Spectrum Disorder, driven by an increase in diagnoses and the state's responsibility to provide comprehensive care. Furthermore, the health response has been subsumed by a commercial logic that reduces autism to a biomedical diagnosis and is aimed at remediating deficits in the pursuit of “normalization”¹. In this sense, this study proposes an exploration of current practices of autism care in the Unified Health System (SUS - Brazil’s public healthcare system), covering the themes of medicalization and stigma to understand the ethical trajectories of current care.

METHODS:
Literature review study with a theoretical framework in the fields of Public Health and Applied Social Sciences. The framework was structured upon contemporary studies on the medicalization of life, the commodification of health, and the sociocultural construction of autism, through a critical lens regarding hegemonic clinical practices.

RESULTS:
The analysis reveals that hegemonic care, often based on the behavioral method (ABA)², tends to objectify the subject³, transforming autism into a profitable market commodity (Autism Industrial Complex⁴). This fragmentation generates burdensome therapeutic itineraries for families⁵ and drives judicialization as a symptom of the inadequacy of public policies⁶⸴⁷. It was identified that overcoming this model requires the recognition of the subject's uniqueness and autonomy⁸, shifting the focus from the “diagnosis to be corrected” to the valorization of individual potentials⁹⸴¹⁰.

CONCLUSIONS:
The results underscore the urgent need to strengthen primary care and build comprehensive and intersectoral care networks. An ethical and emancipatory practice in the SUS should prioritize self-determination and social participation, replacing the logic of conformity and stigma with an neurodiversity-affirming approach and guarantees the full exercise of citizenship.