Defending dignity

In a recent British Medical Journal editorial, Ruth Macklin pronounced that dignity is “a useless concept in medical ethics and can be eliminated without any loss of content” (Macklin, 2003). The published responses offered a unanimous, firm rebuttal, arguing that dignity is somehow foundational to all we do, or ought to be doing, within the practice of medicine or medical research. Whereas Macklin argued that dignity lacked definitional specificity, the words of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brennan were invoked by respondent Jayson Rapoport: “I can't define dignity, but I know it when I see it” (Rapoport, 2003). Whether dignity has no place or a pivotal place within the medical lexicon, what seems clear is that discussions pertaining to dignity leave little room for indifference.