RESPECT FOR LIFE AND HUMAN DIGNITY

This paper attempts to focus on the concept on human dignity .It intends to re-search into the proper definition of human dignity in relation to elderly people. The paper also aims at showing that though Quality of life (QOL) of an elderly people can be deteriorated with social changes, but no one can snatch away one's own dignity. Taking example from Kant's ethics, I would like to show here that we should take care of elderly people not from emotional or sentimental point of view but our ethical principle asks us to do so. To do this, first of all I tried to show multifarious use of the concept ‘human dignity' and then I made a distinction between human dignity and human rights. Sometimes it is mistakenly thought that these two concepts represent the same idea. After that, I have tried to show how elderly people lack human dignity though apparently.