Existence and Manifestations of human dignity: Can a person be deprived of dignity?

Seyed Abdosaleh  Jafari; Nafiseh  Tavasoli; Hanieh  Tavasoli; Soheil  abedi; Seyed Abolhasan  Navvab; Bagher Talebi  Darabi

doi:10.18502/jmehm.v17i8.17107

Seyed Abdosaleh Jafari Researcher, University of Religions and Denominations, Research Center for Religions and Denominations; Researcher, Medical Ethics and History of Medicine Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Nafiseh Tavasoli Researcher, Endocrine and metabolism research center, Endocrine and Metabolism Research institute (EMRI), Tehran University of Medical Sciences,Tehran, Iran
Hanieh Tavasoli Resident of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Soheil abedi PhD Candidate in Medical Ethics, Medical Ethics and History of Medicine Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Seyed Abolhasan Navvab Associate Professor of Jurisprudential Religions Department, Faculty of Religions, University of Religions and Denominators, Qom, Iran.
Bagher Talebi Darabi Assistant Professor, Religious Studies Department, Faculty of Religions, University of Religions and Denominations, Qom, Iran.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/jmehm.v17i8.17107

Keywords: Humans; Personhood; Human dignity; Minority groups; Personal autonomy; Freedom; Human rights; Bioethics; Religious ethics; Islam

Abstract

The criteria for assigning human dignity have been a subject of debate among researchers for years. Regardless of what criteria are chosen for human dignity, each school of thought must provide a method to identify them in people. The authors of this article consider voluntarily in choosing goodness and virtues to be the criterion. The purpose of this article is to present a method for establishing the existence of this criterion in humans and to examine the various manifestations of acting freely on what is good and virtuous by citing philosophical Islamic sources, especially the Qur'an. In this article, we will first discuss the differences among people regarding the existence of dignity and its manifestations, and move on to investigate the special conditions that can be challenging for allocation of dignity across different schools of thought. Finally, we will examine various Islamic sources to evaluate the methods of identifying human dignity in people. Our investigations show that since concepts such as “right” and “good” are of a subjective nature, there is more than one manifestation for presence of criterion of human dignity, and in practice, no one can be deprived of their dignity.