Letter: Defining women

During the recent confirmation hearings of Judge Jackson for the Supreme Court, Sen. Blackburn asked the nominee whether she could define the word "woman." Jackson replied, "I am not a biologist."

This answer has left many people, including biologists, thinking: "this makes no sense." We find that in our society today we find many educated women and men who refuse to define a woman, even though science tells us every cell of our body defines a woman with XX chromosomes and a man with XY chromosomes.

In addition, women's bodies are distinctly different from men's. This inability by some people to define a woman creates some obvious questions: How, then, do we speak of woman's rights or woman's sports if we can't define a woman in the first place?

Larry O'Neill

Palatine