HLSC220 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Pope Leo Xiii, Dignity, Moral Agency
Document Summary
Human beings have been thought to have dignity or, that is, a special kind of value because human beings are believed to be made in the image and likeness of god (pope leo xiii, 1891). From a more secular perspective, kant (trans. Paton, 1948) located human dignity in human nature; that is, he located human dignity in the capacity, or freedom, that human beings possess to deliberate morally and, further, to be held accountable for decisions made (i. e. moral agency). Health care professionals have to respect patient autonomy (see module 3) and, as well, to be accountable for the care they provide. Human dignity in an intrinsic sense as a value, or moral worth, that cannot be either gained or lost. It belongs, that is, to human beings, equally, by virtue of the fact of being human. For kant, humanity itself is understood as a dignity (sulmasy, 2007).
