What Does It Mean to Be Human? by Teresa Iglesias

"One of the most fundamental questions that is increasingly facing bioethicists and society alike is the question, "What does it mean to be human?" "In what consists the act of being human?" "Is my humanity a 'bodily' humanity?" In every area of philosophical concern we are always thrown back to these basic questions." These are the the most fundamental questions to which Teresa Iglesias in her book The Dignity of the Individual: Issues of Bioethics and Law tried to find and present any possible answer.

" I hold that every human being is a human person, and every human person is a human being. I also hold that the existence of a human being, say my own existence, began when my bodily existence began, that is when I was conceived. There are some who do not maintain that human beings are human persons as I do. These differences in view indicate that here we are faced with a problem about the recognition of what we take human beings to be as we experience them, and so as we experience ourselves. Obviously, the facts, say, about our embryonic beginnings--as much as the beginnings of other animals--are well known to biologists and to most of us; the facts are the same, they are written in good biology books. Yet these facts, these realities, are seen to be different, interpreted to be different; so different that some would say: "now at that stage there is a human being in its embryonic form." Another would say, "there is no human being at all; we have only a blob of cells," while still others would say "we have a potential human being, but not a full human being." Now if the account of the facts is biologically the same, for we do not quarrel much about the facts, but we quarrel a lot about their interpretation, then there must be a question concerning 'the vision,' the manner of 'seeing' the facts, the manner in which the same reality is interpreted. What is it that underlies this difference in interpretation? What makes our vision differ? Reality, the concrete material world of things and human beings is not anyone's property; it is there for everyone to pay attention to, to become aware of. But for human beings, this awareness is not only a matter of physical vision, not only a matter of intelligence but also a matter of will and of imagination. For some it appears impossible to imagine themselves as embryos. We must challenge our poor imagination with our intelligence and allow it to see beyond only what we want to see. The human being by his or her free will can pay attention, or listen, or want to be aware, or not at all. I am confident enough to say that "lack of awareness is the root of all evil;" this lack, of course, may be deliberate or not. The effort to 'pay attention to reality' is an effort not only of intelligence but also of will. By this attention truth is born; it dawns on us, i.e., reality is manifested to us.

So let me draw your attention to three fundamental aspects of the human being to which we have to pay attention in order to see them in relation to the kind of beings we are: (i) the human being is bodily, organic, physical, (ii) the human being is also an integrated-unity-of-life, a living being, a living whole, a one, an individual; and (iii) the human being is a being with a temporal continuity, a being with a history, a being in time."

In any bioethical research on dying, palliative care or human dignity this book by Teresa Iglesias, The Dignity of the Individual: Issues of Bioethics and Law. Pleroma Press, Dublin, 2001 should be read.