Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Human Dignity, Part 1

Recently I attended the President's Council of Bioethics and on the second day the council members were discussing a very interesting and thought provoking topic: human dignity, and in particular the ethics surrounding this issue. Religious beliefs were touched upon (whether they were Catholic or Protestant), normative and descriptive ethical theories were used to support claims and the naturalistic view of human domination were all expressed. Honestly, half the time I wasn't sure what they were speaking about but was none the less drawn into my own thoughts for this topic.

However, unlike previous posts I will not currently delve into those thoughts. Instead I welcome your feedback, your thoughts. Here are a few questions to ponder:

- What is human dignity, can it even be defined?
- Who has the authority to claim what is dignifed and what is not?
- Does dignity apply only to the physical aspect or can dignity be applied to other aspects of that person (i.e their air, manner of walking, etc)?
- Does dignity exist outside of humans?
- Are beauty and dignity the same concept and/or intertwined?

Please feel free to address more than these questions or none at all... I'm just curious to hear your views.

Until next time...