The face of the other: why we treat the human person differently

It is the dignity of the human person that provides the foundation of bioethics. But what is it about this notion of human dignity that demands we treat persons differently than we treat non-persons? Where does the concept of human dignity gain its “moral traction”? Closely following John Crosby—and with the help of Thomas Mann—we will see that it is in our incommunicability [what the Instruction Dignitas personae refers to as that which “each one carries in an indelible way” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Dignitas Personae on Certain Bioethical Questions, n. 6, 1)] that we find the “is” that demands the “ought” of being treated differently.