Two rebuttals:

1) Delaying the test as an option--If someone delays taking the test because she is not given adequate time to pump, she will have to delay her graduation from medical school and her post-graduate internships. It is my understanding that this process is highly competitive and it is very possible that a delay would cause her to lose out on internships that would be desirable. Remember-- the question is not whether you think Currier would be a good doctor or good parent, but whether women who are breast-feeding should be given some (presumably limited) amount of extra time to pump during the exams so they are not put at a disadvantage compared to their non-breastfeeding colleagues.

2) ADHD or Dyslexia as a consideration--Neither the lower court nor Judge Katzmann of the Massachusetts Appeals court considered Currier's accommodations for ADHD or dyslexia in deciding this case. This case was simply about whether she should be provided extra time to pump. While we may have gut feelings about whether someone with what we might consider significant impairments should be allowed to become doctors, most of us are not experts on these conditions. Even if we were experts, we do not know the specifics of Currier's case. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers and schools to make reasonable accommodations where they are possible. It doesn't require that anyone with any condition be accommodated in any way. For example, the ADA does not require a person in a wheelchair be allowed to be a firefighter.

Medical doctors serve a surprising number of functions each day and not all doctors are constantly making split second life or death decisions. Many doctors, for example, work in labs researching diseases or developing drugs. Finally, people with impairments are often able to function remarkably well. Oliver Sachs gives an account of a surgeon with Tourettes syndrome (which causes uncontrollable twitching in addition to the more recognizable uncontrollable outbursts) in his book "An Anthropologist on Mars."