Human Dignity in Europe: Introduction

Abstract

This contribution gives an overview of the introduction and development of the idea of human dignity by means of historical and conceptual reconstruction. The development of the term began in antiquity (Cicero) and Christianity as an incentive for asserting the universalist dimension to human dignity, particularly with regard to the listing in the USA and France in the eighteenth century. There is also a focus on post-Second World War debate, where the human dignity was developed into a kind of basic norm known primarily through the German definition of the inviolability of dignity. This is compared with the alternative concept in the Italian Constitution. Afterwards the new approaches from the second half of the twentieth century are discussed and combined with names like Bloch, Maihofer or Luhmann. An interim result determines the new opinion that arose. Special emphasis will be placed on the emergence of human dignity in the various conventions and charters in the twentieth century from the European Convention on Human Rights to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, passing through the Oviedo Convention. After this, however, questions regarding the autonomy and its limits, especially under the perspective of safeguarding the image of man, for example, with regard to other species and the question of ‘speciesism’. Finally the question of crucial issues within medical ethics, especially the example of euthanasia, will be discussed.

This paper is a modified version of Paolo Becchi’s “Il principio dignità umana”, Morcelliana, Brescia 2013