Thomas disagrees. He says “Human dignity has long been understood in this country to be innate.”
Innate. You’re born with it. We are created with it. It cannot be stripped by govnerment or anyone else. It can be kept or given away by the individual and the individual alone.
Well I guess it depends on how you mean it. Dignity in the sense that human life is valuable and of greater worth than any other created thing, then yes, it is innate. But a human being of immense worth can degrade himself to commit undignified acts.
Dignity Definition
dictionary.search.yahoo.com
n. noun
1. the state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect a man of dignity and unbending principle
2. a composed or serious manner or style the dignity of labor
3. a sense of pride in oneself; self-respect
Thomas is brilliant and I think his basic point is sound. I would say we are born with value but not necessarily dignity. We are born dignity neutral. As we live, we choose to be or not be dignified. Everyone else, then, chooses a response.
People can lose their dignity by being evil savages (see ISIS).
I suspect we have a conflict of definitions of the term. But I still say if people are owed dignity and respect then other people are deprived the freedom of their opinions.
Actually I do not think we are in that much disagreement.
Thomas: “It can be kept or given away by the individual and the individual alone.”
That is the same thing. In essence the individual is the keeper of their own dignity. It can be kept of given away. The only difference with what I said is that I said we start neutral. Thomas says we start positive and can lose it. Both ways lay responsibility for it at the individual, not the government or other people.