Article Text
Statistics from Altmetric.com
In Human Dignity in Bioethics and Law, Foster makes an engaging case for considering dignity the ultimate adjudicator over a vast array of bioethical (and bio-legal) dilemmas, since—on his account—it is the value, which underpins all others. Notwithstanding the book's merits (it is, eg, refreshing to hear a barrister regret the need for laws: p. 22), I emerged with various questions, three of which I outline here.
Dignity's steer?
First, what moral steer does (Fosterian) dignity provide? Foster indicates that every human has dignity, no matter what (p. 12). If dignity is ineliminable, regardless of what is done to (or by) the human then how can we use the concept, that is, when can we say that a practice is contrary to (or perhaps even simply disrespectful of) human dignity? For example, Foster apparently judges human enhancement to be an affront to human dignity. His account is explicitly tethered to humans; lurking within his exploration of ‘humanness’ is the idea that humans are what humans do, as well as what they have evolved to become (p. 26). If this is a fair reading then how can we coherently object to anything that humans do or wish to do, enhancement included? Foster risks seeing dignity everywhere, which …
Footnotes
Competing interests The author was the external examiner for Charles Foster's PhD, in which some of the questions posed in this paper were explored.
Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.
Request Permissions
If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.
Copyright information:
Linked Articles
- Author meets critics: response
- Author meets critics: response
- Author meets critics: response
Read the full text or download the PDF:
Other content recommended for you
- Whose dignity? Resolving ambiguities in the scope of “human dignity” in the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights
- Human dignity: a response to Camosy and Huxtable
- Dignity is a useless concept
- Ethical rhetoric: genomics and the moral content of UNESCO’s “universal” declarations
- What constitutional protection for freedom of scientific research?
- Reproductive and therapeutic cloning, germline therapy, and purchase of gametes and embryos: comments on Canadian legislation governing reproduction technologies
- Thalamic proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy in vegetative state induced by traumatic brain injury
- Making sense of dignity
- Current controversies and irresolvable disagreement: the case of Vincent Lambert and the role of ‘dissensus’
- Causes and consequences of delays in treatment-withdrawal from PVS patients: a case study of Cumbria NHS Clinical Commissioning Group v Miss S and Ors [2016] EWCOP 32