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Dignity
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Dignity is a term used in moral, ethical, and political discussions to signify that a being has an innate right to respect and ethical treatment. It is an extension of enlightenment-era beliefs that individuals have God-given, inviolable rights, and thus is closely related to concepts like virtue, respect, self-respect, autonomy, human rights, and enlightened reason. Dignity is generally proscriptive and cautionary: in politics it is usually synonymous to 'human dignity', and is used to critique the treatment of oppressed and vulnerable groups and peoples, though in some case has been extended to apply to cultures and sub-cultures, religious beliefs and ideals, animals used for food or research, and even plants.
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Encyclopedia
Dignity is a term used in moral, ethical, and political discussions to signify that a being has an innate right to respect and ethical treatment. It is an extension of enlightenment-era beliefs that individuals have God-given, inviolable rights, and thus is closely related to concepts like virtue, respect, self-respect, autonomy, human rights, and enlightened reason. Dignity is generally proscriptive and cautionary: in politics it is usually synonymous to 'human dignity', and is used to critique the treatment of oppressed and vulnerable groups and peoples, though in some case has been extended to apply to cultures and sub-cultures, religious beliefs and ideals, animals used for food or research, and even plants. In more colloquial settings it is used to suggest that someone is not receiving a proper degree of respect, or even that they are failing to treat themselves with proper self-respect.
While dignity is a term with a long philosophical history, it is rarely defined outright in political, legal, and scientific discussions. International proclamations have thus far left dignity undefined, and scientific commentators, such as those arguing against genetic research and algeny, cite dignity as a reason but are ambiguous about its application.
In politics
In modern politics, dignity is used to signify that all human beings possess intrinsic worthiness and deserve a basic level of respect, without regard to age, gender, health, social or ethnic origin, social status, political ideology, religious beliefs or practices, or other elements of personal history. This is reflected in regional law, such as US anti-discrimination and hate crimes statutes and the German constitution, an well as in international pacts, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
In the political realm, dignity is largely a 20th century concept. it's first notable use is in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948:
The American Convention on Human Rights (1969), art. 11(1), likewise proclaims, "Everyone has the right to have his honor respected and his dignity recognized", and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (1981), art. 5, insists that "Every individual shall have the right to the respect of the dignity inherent in a human being."
This concept has been extended from purely political rights to cover issues resulting from technological advances in medicine. In 1996, the Council of Europe argued for dignity in its Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine, and in 1998, the United Nations focussed on dignity in the UNESCO Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights. These conventions addressed multiple issues, including cloning, stem cell research, genetic markers for racial and health issues, and other factors where modern medicine and the investigation of the human genome might impact on human rights. the latter declaration goes so far as to claim:
Dignity has also been used to justify protections against the defamation of religions. several resolutions by the United Nations bid all nations to impose legal sanctions upon blasphemy and upon all conduct that a religious person might find offensive. A Catholic archbishop favored legal sanctions because, he said, it is "the manipulation and defamation of religion which threatens human dignity, rights, peace and security." One law professor hoped "the law against defamation of religions may be constructed in a way that does not abridge legitimate speech including artistic freedom and yet protects the dignity of religion." Dignity has even been extended (by Switzerland, by its constitution in 1992) to the dignity of all living beings, saying that Swiss citizens must respect the dignity of animals, the dignity of vegetation, and the dignity of other organisms. Accordingly, the Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology (ECNH)(Switzerland) published a brochure in 2008 about how researchers can respect the dignity of plants.
Some international proclamations leave dignity undefined. The commentators who say that genetic research and algeny need to be curtailed for the sake of dignity either leave dignity undefined or fill it with ambiguity and contradiction. Those who say that criticising a religious belief or practice threatens dignity do not define dignity. Those who say that the dignity of religion needs protection do not tell us what religion has that needs to be protected. They do not explain why the rights of an idea should be superior to the rights of human beings. They do not say why it is a good idea to forget, as Madalyn Murray O'Hair said, "Religion has caused more misery to all of mankind in every stage of human history than any other single idea." The ethicists who wanted to help researchers in Switzerland to respect plants found themselves unable to agree on what the dignity of a plant is and on whether vegetation is part of the moral community. In 2008, The President's Council on Bioethics (United States) tried to arrive at a consensus about what dignity meant but failed. Speaking of the human moral community, Edmund D. Pellegrino, M.D., the Council's Chairman, says in the Letter of Transmittal to the President of The United States, "… there is no universal agreement on the meaning of the term, human dignity."
In philosophy
At the philosophical level, following Kant, dignity has been used to indicate that persons should always be treated as ends in themselves and never merely as means. Kant presents “dignity” as exactly the opposite of “price”: while “price” is the kind of value for which there can be an equivalent (roughly economic value), “dignity” makes a person irreplaceable. Therefore, dignity can be explained as a requirement of non-instrumentalization of persons. Other definitions exist, however. Pico Della Mirandola offered an idea of dignity in the "Oration on the Dignity of Man" that is based on a Neo-Platonist framework of man's role in the universe. Since man occupies the highest place in the chain of being in comparison with other creatures, he has the unique ability to learn from all the other entities in the universe. This confers man free-will as he is able to choose actions based upon the knowledge that he can acquire. It is this ability to act with moral autonomy due to man's unique place in the universe by which humanity can have dignity. Dan Egonsson defines dignity in terms of being human and alive, Aldergrove, by contrast, says the meaninglessness of dignity exposes it as a conceit: "an excuse to feel the way you want, or to do what you want." He views this as a way of creating an authority out of nothing.
The idea of dignity promotes some controversy, particularly around medical issues, which often place individual rights in opposition to medical advancement or procedures. This is commonplace with procedures that involve embryos and fetuses - abortion, embryonic stem cell research, even genetic testing for various diseases - because of questions about whether embryos and fetuses are 'people' who have a right to dignified treatment of their own. Utilitarian philosophers see a conflict with their principle of equal consideration of interests, and sometimes the idea is criticised as an example of speciesism.
German Constitution
Human dignity features as the most fundamental principle of the German constitution. Article 1, paragraph 1 reads: "Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority." Human dignity is thus mentioned even before the right to life. This has a significant impact on German law-making and jurisdiction in both serious and trivial items:
- It is the base of § 131 StGB, which outlaws representation of violence in certain cases and was the grounds for the confiscation of many horror movies and some video games like Manhunt or the Mortal Kombat series.
- Based on a decision by the German Federal Constitutional Court in 1977, life imprisonment without the possibility of parole is unconstitutional in Germany because it was found to be a violation of human dignity (and the Rechtsstaat principle) to never be given a realistic chance to leave prison again during one's natural life. As a result, a prisoner serving a life term can since be granted parole as early as 15 years after being incarcerated.
- § 14 (3) of the Luftsicherheitsgesetz, which would have allowed the Bundeswehr to shoot down airliners if they are used as weapons by terrorists, was declared unconstitutional mainly on the grounds of human dignity: killing a small number of innocent people to save a large number cannot be legalized since it treats dignity as if it was a measurable and limited quantity.
- A Benetton advertisement showing human buttocks with an "H.I.V. positive" stamp was declared in violation of human dignity by some courts, but in the end found legal.
- The first German law legalizing abortion in 1975 was declared unconstitutional because the court held that embryos had human dignity, too. In the new law on abortion that was developed in the 1990s, this has been recognized in that early-term abortions are still not legal, the state merely declines to administer the due punishment.
- In a decision from 1981-12-15, the Bundesverwaltungsgericht declared that peep shows violated the human dignity of the performer, regardless of her personal feelings. The decision was later revised, but shows where the performer cannot herself see the persons who are watching her remain outlawed on grounds of dignity.
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