Dignity and enhancement

Abstract

In bioethics, “human dignity” is commonly used as a guiding principle, although how exactly it should factor into ethical deliberations and whether it is a useful concept or not, is subject to debate. For some it is a synonym for rights derived from being human, while others see it as a transcendent value in itself. The author argues that the dignity of the person, instead of being a general guiding principle, should be thought of in terms of a placeholder that serves as a tool to avoid extreme outcomes, such as the Holocaust. Also, he sees politics as the best platform to weigh human dignity against other important principles in an attempt to fairly arbitrate between groups of people and private interests. The article then concludes that the principle of “the dignity of the human person”, albeit incomplete as it is, is a useful placeholder in political discourse when addressing topics such as abortion and embryonic stem cell research. – AI-generated abstract.