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Unit: $U96

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BRAGDON v. ABBOTT

Opinion of O(cid:146)Connor, J.

at 654. While it is not entirely certain whether these dental
workers contracted HIV during the course of providing den-
tal treatment, the potential that the disease was transmitted
during the course of dental treatment is relevant evidence.
One need only demonstrate “risk,” not certainty of infection.
See Arline, supra, at 288 (“ ‘[T]he probabilities the disease
will be transmitted’ ” is a factor in assessing risk). Given
the “severity of the risk” involved here, i. e., near certain
death, and the fact that no public health authority had out-
lined a protocol for eliminating this risk in the context of
routine dental treatment, it seems likely that petitioner can
establish that it was objectively reasonable for him to con-
clude that treating respondent in his ofﬁce posed a “direct
threat” to his safety.

In addition, petitioner offered evidence of 42 documented
incidents of occupational transmission of HIV to health care
workers other than dental professionals. App. 106. The
Court of Appeals dismissed this evidence as irrelevant be-
cause these health professionals were not dentists.
107
F. 3d 934, 947 (CA1 1997). But the fact that the health care
workers were not dentists is no more valid a basis for distin-
guishing these transmissions of HIV than the fact that the
health care workers did not practice in Maine. At a mini-
mum, petitioner’s evidence was sufﬁcient to create a triable
issue on this question, and summary judgment was accord-
ingly not appropriate.

Justice O(cid:146)Connor, concurring in the judgment in part

and dissenting in part.

I agree with The Chief Justice that respondent’s claim
of disability should be evaluated on an individualized basis
and that she has not proved that her asymptomatic HIV sta-
tus substantially limited one or more of her major life activi-
ties.
In my view, the act of giving birth to a child, while a
very important part of the lives of many women, is not gen-
erally the same as the representative major life activities of