Abstract

The notion of dignity emerged, above all, in Europe after the Holocaust, in the aftermath of World War II as a quest for a principle that would provide a moral means to prevent the repetition of such horror. But there are several contending notions of dignity: the idea of a dignity inherent to the human condition, the reference to dignity as a weapon to legitimise a point of view and a relational dignity, more closely related to social and cultural conditions in that it gives each unique individual the opportunity to define which aspects of his existence are ‘dignified’ or ‘undignified’. Dignity is a chameleon concept; vague, likely to be emotionally based on opposing moral and ideological positions, it has very little value unless its parameters are patiently and rigorously defined.