Vulnerability and Human Dignity in the Age of Rights

Abstract

The chapter emphasizes the fragility of human condition and the need for political powers and laws that pursue the protection of all individuals. Part I points out the need for ‘the recognition of human vulnerability as a condition for the respect of human dignity’. Precariousness and frailty are constitutive features of human life. Every individual has always been characterized by dependency, by weakness… and by inexorable death. It’s the human condition, the history of our race and actually the only way of belonging to it. In a postmodern culture that exaggerates the value of aesthetics and welfare, in which the endeavour to exalt perfection over imperfection is present, the chapter suggests opening our eyes to a simple and authentic truth: human nature is fragile. It has always been defined by one characteristic: limitation, finitude. Part II (‘Law and human rights for the inherent human dignity’) approaches the matter from a constitutional law perspective. To put it simply, it argues that legal systems should aim to ensure respect for the basic rights of individuals, not because they are intelligent or particularly skilled or talented, but just because of their human condition or, in other words, because of their natural dignity. All individuals are vulnerable, but some individuals are more vulnerable than others. If laws did not recognize and respect the natural dignity of all individuals in equal terms, these would be gravely damaged, particularly the most vulnerable ones. Laws, states and international organizations would be delegitimized, and societies would collapse. The chapter describes how international human rights instruments have emphasized the close relationship between human rights and human dignity, and more particularly, to which extent have explicitly recognized that human rights derive from the inherent dignity of the human person. Part III (‘Taking vulnerability, human dignity and human rights more seriously’) highlights that this volume aims to deepen our understanding of the relationship between vulnerability, human dignity and human rights. This explains why this volume analyses the human dignity of the vulnerable from different perspectives (I. ethical and anthropological; II. medical and sociological; and III. historical, legal philosophical and political).