Human Dignity and Bioethics

284
Commentary on Meilaender
and Lawler
Diana Schaub
I
n his very fine essay, Gilbert Meilaender argues that Christianity
has transformed the Greek emphasis on comparative dignity by
bringing it into contact with egalitarian dignity. Christianity, he says,
marks “a great rupture in Western culture.” He further argues that
this Christian egalitarianism is the inspiration behind the American
assertion of man’s equality in the Declaration of Independence. He
suggests that one needs belief in the fatherhood of God for the brotherhood
of men to be seen as self-evident. He worries that, with the
decline in religious belief—and the unwillingness to acknowledge
the connection between religion and politics—we are increasingly
in a situation where our commitment to equal human dignity is ungrounded
and, hence, unsustainable.
Meilaender wants us back on firm ground and, in particular, he
argues that there are two places where differences in excellence or
dignity must not matter: the first is at “the threshold of death, when
the continuance of life itself is at stake,” and the other is “the opportunity
to live within human society and participate in its common
life.”
While Meilaender makes plain his discomfort with the aristocratic
ancient Greek take on dignity (even calling it “a temptation”