Human dignity deserves a place as part of our common language only as long as we appreciate that all people hold this dignity in common. A pluralistic society will inevitably hold this standard in tension with competing ideas about what constitutes human dignity. That is why there is a continuing need for dynamic translation of the biblical principles underlying dignity into the common language. Successful translation also requires that Christians lead lives consistent with those principles.



--- from the commentary by William D. Cheshire, Toward a Common Language of Human Dignity, in the latest issue of Ethics & Medicine.