Human Dignity as a Legal Concept. A Vision of European Culture

The article identifies the belief in human dignity as indispenseable human right as the essence of European legal culture. From a historical point of view, it lines out that, originally, the foundation of a common Europe should be, first of all, the belief in human rights based on the inviolable dignity of man. The article examines the meaning of human dignity in a legal sense, identifying the core of human dignity as “the promise of legal personality especially in the state of imperfection and weakness”. In a next step, attention is drawn to the fact, that the practice of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) casts doubt on the validity of this concept of human dignity as common European legal value. As a consequence, Europe is called to return to its spiritual and religious foundations under which the legal concept of human dignity developed.