Human Dignity and Bioethics

352 | Martha Nussbaum
idea, without further philosophical clarification, does not do enough
work to ground political principles. Some interpretations of the idea,
indeed, might lead political thought seriously astray.
I propose, here, to articulate further the conception of human
dignity that I have used in my account of social and global justice,
and to show why it is preferable to some other conceptions of that
idea. I shall begin historically, looking at the influential Stoic account
of human dignity and at some of the problems inherent in it. These
problems, I argue, should lead us to prefer an Aristotelian/Marxian
account of dignity, which sees the dignity of the human being as
squarely a part of the world of nature and does not posit a sharp split
between rationality and other human capacities. I shall show how
such an account might ground basic political entitlements (in a nonmetaphysical
way suited to a pluralistic society). Then I shall look at
two challenges such an account has to face: the challenge of equal
respect/inclusiveness, and the challenge of doing justice to the claims
of other animals and the types of dignity that their lives exhibit. I
conclude with some preliminary reflections on what a capabilitiesbased
approach implies about some important questions of bioethics.
The Stoic Account 4
According to the Greek and Roman Stoics, the basis for human community
is the worth of reason in each and every human being. 5 Reason
(meaning practical reason, the capacity for moral choice), is, in
the Stoic view, a portion of the divine in each of us. And each and
every human being, just in virtue of having rational capacities, has
boundless worth. Male or female, slave or free, king or peasant, all are
alike of boundless moral value, and the dignity of reason is worthy
of respect wherever it is found. Moreover, even if human beings vary
in their moral attainments, moral/rational capacity is fundamentally
equal, and a source of our equal worth across all that divides us.
Moral capacity is wonderful and worthy, so it ought to be respected.
People usually give reverence and awe to the outward trappings of
wealth and power. Instead, the Stoics argue, we should respect what
is really worthy in us. Seneca is especially eloquent in his description
of the beauty of the moral substance of humanity in each person and