Human Dignity and Bioethics

The Lived Experience of Human Dignity | 517
patients, including her own.* I also believe that the lived experience
of dignity inevitably raises the thorniest questions about our place
in the cosmos and our stance toward divinity. These questions have
been probed with remarkable acuity and candor in a recent dialogue
between Jürgen Habermas and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now of
course Pope Benedict XVI), and I offer some concluding reflections
on the future of human dignity in the light of the conversation between
these eminent thinkers.
Thinking About the Experience of Dignity: Gabriel
Marcel and John Newman
At the outset, it is essential to indicate my concurrence with the concept
of intrinsic dignity set forth by Sulmasy† on the basis of the
theory of natural kinds, by Lee and George on the basis of natural
law,‡ and by Meilaender on the basis of man’s special relation with his
Creator.§ Each of these authors makes a clear distinction between intrinsic
human dignity and attributed or imputed dignity. From their
viewpoints, intrinsic human dignity is expressive of the inherent
worth present in all humans simply by virtue of their being human.
Intrinsic dignity cannot be gained or lost, expanded or diminished.
It is independent of human opinions about a person’s worth. It is the
inherent grounding for the moral entitlements of every human to
respect for one’s person, one’s rights, and one’s equal treatment under
the law in a just political order.
Extrinsic or imputed dignity, on the other hand, is the assessment
of the worth or status humans assign to each other or to themselves.
10 It is based on external measures of worth or value as perceived
in a person’s behavior, social status, appearance, etc. It sums
up certain perceived attributes judged admirable or condemnable by
other persons, by culture, by political or social criteria, by fashion, or
by membership in certain groups. Imputed dignity can be gained or
lost simply by one’s own self-judgment or by the judgment of others.
* See Rebecca Dresser’s essay in this volume.
† See Daniel P. Sulmasy’s essay in this volume.
‡ See the essay by Patrick Lee and Robert P. George in this volume.
§ See Gilbert Meilaender’s essay in this volume.