Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
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Unit: $U96

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Cite as: 524 U. S. 624 (1998)

643

Opinion of the Court

.

“Based on the medical knowledge available to us, we be-
lieve that it is reasonable to conclude that the life activ-
. is substantially limited for an
ity of procreation .
asymptomatic HIV-infected individual.
In light of the
signiﬁcant risk that the AIDS virus may be transmitted
to a baby during pregnancy, HIV-infected individuals
cannot, whether they are male or female, engage in the
act of procreation with the normal expectation of bring-
ing forth a healthy child.”

Id., at 273.

In addition, OLC indicated that “[t]he life activity of engag-
ing in sexual relations is threatened and probably substan-
tially limited by the contagiousness of the virus.”
Id., at
274. Either consideration was sufﬁcient to render asympto-
matic HIV infection a handicap for purposes of the Rehabili-
tation Act.
In the course of its opinion, OLC considered,
and rejected, the contention that the limitation could be dis-
counted as a voluntary response to the infection. The limi-
tation, it reasoned, was the infection’s manifest physical ef-
fect.
Id., at 274, and n. 13. Without exception, the other
agencies to address the problem before enactment of the
ADA reached the same result. Federal Contract Compli-
ance Manual App. 6D, 8 FEP Manual 405:352 (Dec. 23, 1988);
In re Ritter, No. 03890089, 1989 WL 609697, *10 (EEOC, Dec.
8, 1989); see also Comptroller General’s Task Force on AIDS
in the Workplace, Coping with AIDS in the GAO Workplace:
Task Force Report 29 (Dec. 1987); Report of the Presidential
Commission on the Human Immunodeﬁciency Virus Epi-
demic 113–114, 122–123 (June 1988). Agencies have adhered
to this conclusion since the enactment of the ADA as well.
See 5 CFR § 1636.103 (1997); 7 CFR § 15e.103 (1998); 22 CFR
§ 1701.103 (1997); 24 CFR § 9.103 (1997); 34 CFR § 1200.103
(1997); 45 CFR §§ 2301.103, 2490.103 (1997); In re Westchester
County Medical Center, [1991–1994 Transfer Binder] CCH
Employment Practices Guide ¶ 5340, pp. 6110–6112 (Apr. 20,
1992), aff ’d, id., ¶ 5362, pp. 6249–6250 (Dept. of Health &
Human Servs. Departmental Appeals Bd., Sept. 25, 1992);