Human Dignity and Bioethics

The Religious Character of Human Dignity | 393
neighbor…. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart….
Thou shalt not take vengeance…. But thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself… (Leviticus 19:9-19).
In other words: your belief that you have the duty and authority to
stop a murderer before he starts suggests that you believe, implicitly,
in the God of Israel.
Dignity and Humanity
So—what does bioethics mean by “human dignity”? We all know that
dignity has two related meanings. It’s a property we notice in some
people more than in others, having to do with gravity, seriousness,
unflappability, wisdom and (formerly) rank or position. It’s also a
property all human beings are said to possess, by virtue of which they
are to be treated decently no matter what. The second property is the
one we are discussing here.
Adam Schulman gives us a valuable starting point when he defines
human dignity as “our essential and inviolable humanity.”
Granted, “humanity” in the sense of humane-ness is easy to understand,
and only humans have it. But the definition is problematic.
(In discussing these problems, my goal is not to take pot-shots at
Schulman’s definition; it was intended as a starting point for discussion,
and is serving exactly that purpose.)
If human dignity is the quality of humanity or humane-ness (as
in the Yiddish “he’s a mensch”—which means “man” in German too,
but not in this sense), why should we preserve it if scientists can cook
up something better? Why should the question of human dignity
even arise when the topic is human cloning? Why should human
dignity be “inalienable,” given that “our essential humanity” is not
inviolable—given that human beings sometimes act with inhuman
cruelty?
Humanity or humane-ness is good—but many genetic engineers
believe that they will be able to produce “better” humans eventually,
better in all sorts of ways: smarter, stronger, tougher, better-looking,
healthier. So isn’t it possible that they will be able to cook up more
humane humans too? Shouldn’t we let them try?