Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
Page Number: 684.0

524US2

Unit: $U96

[09-15-00 14:39:49] PAGES PGT: OPIN

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

639

Opinion of the Court

tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learn-
45 CFR § 84.3( j)(2)(ii) (1997); 28 CFR
ing, and working.”
§ 41.31(b)(2) (1997). As the use of the term “such as” con-
ﬁrms, the list is illustrative, not exhaustive.

These regulations are contrary to petitioner’s attempt to
limit the meaning of the term “major” to public activities.
The inclusion of activities such as caring for one’s self and
performing manual tasks belies the suggestion that a task
must have a public or economic character in order to be a
major life activity for purposes of the ADA. On the con-
trary, the Rehabilitation Act regulations support the inclu-
sion of reproduction as a major life activity, since reproduc-
tion could not be regarded as any less important than
working and learning. Petitioner advances no credible basis
for conﬁning major life activities to those with a public, eco-
nomic, or daily aspect.
In the absence of any reason to
reach a contrary conclusion, we agree with the Court of Ap-
peals’ determination that reproduction is a major life activity
for the purposes of the ADA.

3

The ﬁnal element of the disability deﬁnition in subsection
(A) is whether respondent’s physical impairment was a sub-
stantial limit on the major life activity she asserts. The Re-
habilitation Act regulations provide no additional guidance.
45 CFR pt. 84, App. A, p. 334 (1997).

Our evaluation of the medical evidence leads us to conclude
that respondent’s infection substantially limited her ability
to reproduce in two independent ways. First, a woman in-
fected with HIV who tries to conceive a child imposes on the
man a signiﬁcant risk of becoming infected. The cumulative
results of 13 studies collected in a 1994 textbook on AIDS
indicates that 20% of male partners of women with HIV
became HIV-positive themselves, with a majority of the
studies ﬁnding a statistically signiﬁcant risk of infection.
Osmond & Padian, Sexual Transmission of HIV, in AIDS