A commitment to human dignity is a universally shared value. Concepts of human dignity date back to the groundbreaking writings of Immanuel Kant and probably also to the Stoic tradition in ancient Greece and Rome. References to human dignity are
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common in bioethics, philosophy and legal discourse. Human dignity is also at the heart of human rights. In recent years, the protection of human dignity has also become a central criterion for evaluating controversial technologies such as cloning and embryonic stem cells. Although human dignity is a strongly evocative and widely recognised concept, it is elusive as to its exact meaning and requirements. For some, dignity refers to the fundamental and inalienable core of human nature, but there is no consensus on what the distinguishing feature of human nature is or what exactly constitutes its source. For human rights theorists, human dignity refers to the intrinsic value of all human beings and the requirement that all human beings be treated with due respect, but human rights work has yet to define the content and requirements of this human dignity. Others use the concept of human dignity to justify the ethical obligations owed to the human person, and again there are different interpretations as to the extent of these obligations, as well as the identification of the person(s) responsible. In this situation, there is a distinct possibility that the term 'human dignity' may not only convey a variety of understandings, but may even refer to different things.
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