Abstract
The author delves into the concept of dignity and how it is under attack in different forms, from the forced donation of a kidney to the underserved population of the Global South. The author explores how the majority population displaces responsibility for a certain outcome and places it on the disadvantaged themselves. It also looks at how political dignity is attacked when individuals are required to reveal their disadvantage to qualify for compensation. However, this chapter also highlights how the concept of dignity can be successfully challenged, as seen in the recognition of three extensive geographical regions in New Zealand as legal persons to Mātauranga Māori, a happy marriage of personhood plus nonhuman dignity. Along with dignity, the author studies engagement because both concepts are essential in Bodi. They bring to light the ways in which displacement can harm individuals and communities and highlight the importance of recognizing and respecting their humanity, agency, and knowledge.
TopOn Dignities
Individual Dignity
There are countless attacks that can be inflicted against individual dignity. Nevertheless, measuring a person’s freedom in her body parts is a wound of a kind in the victims’ dignity. Mississippi governor Haley Barbour promised to release the inmate Gladys Scott, who was serving two life sentences for armed robbery after sixteen years of prison with the condition that she donate one of her kidneys to her sister Jamie, sentenced for life along with Gladys (Jefferson-Jones, 2013). The sisters (19 and 21 years old then) had no previous criminal record, nobody was hurt and the robbery netted no more than eleven dollars (Herbert, 2010). Perhaps, the life sentence was caused by the aggravation of walking by a Black skin in Mississippi (Donaldson, 2010). Perhaps, as the sisters’ mother Evelyn Rasco declared, it was a payback for her family’s testimony against a corrupt sheriff (Pitts Jr., 2010). It was a true bioethics debate on moral repugnance.
Figure 1.
Gov. Haley Barbour overcoming repugnance thanks to the Trumpist mindset: “These sisters brought drugs. These sisters brought crime. These sisters are rapists.”
Either from a position of power or powerless, human beings daily bitterly belittle each other in order to give oneself an extra value and when this value can be showed off without being shrunk-shun by others, it’s (in a common, non-philosophical sense) our dignity (Cabrera, 2018). For example, a garbage collector who sings and shows himself joyful in the work and doesn’t show any concern about if the others think that he is surrounded in crap and flies, has indeed a great deal of dignity. The tricky side is that he has the same dignity even if he is playing the happy shiny people while, privately, sees himself as a dung beetle. When the quest for dignity at work starts with a low salary in a non-glamorous position you are against all odds, besides the odds of being humbled and even pornified (Lozano Rodriguez, 2021). For most people, dignity is in the street.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Human Rights: The fundamental rights and freedoms that every person should have. In practice, there is one core human right far away from being satisfied: the power to prevent and avoid ill-treatment by any government.
Engagement in Bioethics of Displacement: Active participation in research, storytelling, and imaginative exploration of ethical dilemmas.
Power: A situation in which an individual can influence or control others, often through authority, dominance, or control of resources.
Social Justice: the moral duty of fighting the arbitrary deprivation of opportunities.
Group Dignity: The unconditional recognition of collective contributions and suffered harms and persecutions.
Respect: Treating others with consideration, and acknowledging their rights and dignity as fellow individuals.
Individual Dignity: The inherent and unconditional worth of every person, beyond usefulness or abilities.
Political Dignity: The sense of worth and respect influenced by not being blamed for disadvantages and being entitled to challenge societal values.
Poverty: A state of extreme lack, where people don't have enough money or services for meeting basic needs, developing intellectually and enjoying a decent life.