Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
Page Number: 704.0

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Unit: $U96

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

659

Opinion of Rehnquist, C. J.

for the moment that reproduction is a major life activity at
all). At most, the record indicates that after learning of her
HIV status, respondent, whatever her previous inclination,
conclusively decided that she would not have children. App.
14. There is absolutely no evidence that, absent the HIV,
respondent would have had or was even considering hav-
ing children.
Indeed, when asked during her deposition
whether her HIV infection had in any way impaired her abil-
ity to carry out any of her life functions, respondent an-
swered “No.”
It is further telling that in the course
of her entire brief to this Court, respondent studiously
avoids asserting even once that reproduction is a major life
activity to her. To the contrary, she argues that the “major
life activity” inquiry should not turn on a particularized
assessment of the circumstances of this or any other case.
Brief for Respondent Abbott 30–31.

Ibid.

But even aside from the facts of this particular case, the
Court is simply wrong in concluding as a general matter that
reproduction is a “major life activity.” Unfortunately, the
ADA does not deﬁne the phrase “major life activities.” But
the Act does incorporate by reference a list of such activities
contained in regulations issued under the Rehabilitation Act.
42 U. S. C. § 12201(a); 45 CFR § 84.3( j)(2)(ii) (1997). The
Court correctly recognizes that this list of major life activi-
ties “is illustrative, not exhaustive,” ante, at 639, but then
makes no attempt to demonstrate that reproduction is a
major life activity in the same sense that “caring for one’s
self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing,
speaking, breathing, learning, and working” are. Ante, at
638–639.

Instead, the Court argues that reproduction is a “major”
life activity in that it is “central to the life process itself.”
Ante, at 638.
In support of this reading, the Court focuses
on the fact that “ ‘major’ ” indicates “ ‘comparative impor-

prise the reproductive process, and that is the sense in which I have used
the term.