Book Review: The Ethical Imagination

December 7, 2007

Human dignity has fallen on hard times. Nearly 60 years ago, it was the bedrock of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. But now bioethicists, who are tasked with the protection of life, are questioning whether or not it even exists. Not long ago, for instance, the most quoted bioethicist in the world, Arthur Caplan, of the University of Pennsylvania said that: “Dignity reflects a moral status that moral agents assign to others. It is conferred on a human being by other human beings. There is no inherent property that confers dignity on a human being.” (MercatorNet)