Overworked, but Uncritically Tested: Human Dignity and the Aid-in-Dying Debate

Abstract

Throughout the debate and discussion surrounding aid-in-dying whether understood as active euthanasia or assisted suicide,¹ a certain term emerges again and again: “human dignity”. Much like the refrain of a well-known tune, we hear repeatedly that we must honor and respect the demands of human dignity in the care of the critically ill and dying, especially those who request the termination of their lives. I have no quarrel with this claim; indeed, I too embrace it wholeheartedly. Yet, as my title is meant to indicate, “human dignity” all too often lies as an under-examined presupposition or background concept in current ethical considerations of aid-in-dying. As one commen- tator notes, human dignity generally has been “‘displayed’ and discussed in intellectual abodes, while remaining essentially unexamined and unexplored” ([11], p. 18). In other words, human dignity as a moral concept is most often asserted, as if its meaning and moral weight were self-evident, rather than critically explored; its conceptual substance is assumed, rather than critically examined or justified. It is just such critical, but only preliminary,² scrutiny that I undertake in this essay.