When thinking of Human Dignity with respect to Catholic theology, we will always find ourselves going back to the basics – the Bible for the answer. According to Kelly, “Catholic theology has traditionally argued for the dignity of the human person from the two theological bases – creation and redemption.” The first base, creation, is of special importance because God created man in his likeness, in the Garden of Eden to be in fellowship with him and with a superior, if not a special, status in creation. And second, God is not a God who made humanity and watches us run to our destruction like a scientist watching a lab rat. Rather, God played an active role in human history – to the point where he was willing to be a redeemer, to offer forgiveness for us through his life and blood. Those two bases show humans possessing a special status in creation, whether it is because of our species or our spiritual connection with God I do not know, but God himself gave a higher value to humanity – taking the effort to make us with his hand from dust and breathe life into us.

This higher value or human dignity is what we strive to define. Steven Pinker is right when he says dignity has no specific definition – just like autonomy or respect. But when those principles or concepts are applied to the human person, it takes on a whole new meaning that cannot be simply ignored. I think Pope Pius defines Human Dignity (McDonough Page 18-20) as something that is inherently a person’s God-given inalienable rights that deserves to be protected by Government and promoted by the community. Human dignity is in itself enshrined as the corner stone of society from the very beginning as ordained by God through creation and later through his covenants with the people. Thus all social institutions, governments, states, laws, human rights and respect for persons originate in the dignity of man or his personhood. Thus his dignity serves to be the “foundation, cause and end of all social institutions”(McDonough pg 21).

So to say that dignity is too ambiguous and does not factor into science or medical ethic is foolish and has no social or religious basis for such a claim. The use of the word Human Dignity in bioethical, medical and scientific community is not some secret sectarian agenda and it is not certainly a vague topic such as “human rights.” But if human dignity is not a principle that we can use – then what is? Do we treat an animal on a same level as a human being? If you have any common sense, you can see human beings are not treated as “animals” but with a certain stateliness that is different from other living creations which is essentially the concept of Human Dignity at work or “a property that supposed to belong to all people, in every condition, just by virtue of their humanity.” Thus the reason why a homeless person is not kicked out of society and driven out like an animal or the reason why a helpless patient or a person in vegetative state is not left to die in painful or inhumane way. We human beings, without having to define it, inherently from our birth have a sense of greater affinity, respect and stateliness towards other human beings, perhaps a God-given sense of dignity as human beings towards others. There are some thing we just would not do as humans to other human beings and those who do those things are considered “animals” or inhumane and treated likewise. So no, human dignity is not a matter of definitions or a highly fanciful non-scientific argument. It is an inalienable God given right that plays a role in ethical and social principles on the merit of a person’s humanity and defines all social institutions based on that dignity.