Human Dignity and Bioethics

(Chorus: Glory, glory, hallelujah, etc.)
Defending Human Dignity | 307
We are done with hoeing cotton, we are done with hoeing corn,
We are colored Yankee soldiers, now, as sure as you are born;
When the masters hear us yelling, they will think it’s Gabriel’s horn,
As we go marching on.
Then fall in, colored brethren, you’d better do it soon,
Can’t you hear the drums a-beating the Yankee Doodle tune;
We are with you now this morning, we’ll be far away at noon,
As we go marching on.
Debased ex-slaves, only recently hoeing cotton and corn for their
masters, transform themselves into brave soldiers “fighting for the
Union…fighting for the law.” Although formally emancipated by
Lincoln’s proclamation months earlier, they were truly lifted up from
slavery not by another’s largesse but by their own power and choice.
They celebrate here their new estate, singing out their newly found
dignity and beckoning others to join the cause. Our heart is stirred
by this simple display of noble humanity, especially because it actively
reverses their previous degradation and because it fully refutes
the dehumanizing conclusions some had drawn from their prior servitude
and submissiveness, namely, that anyone who accepts a life
in slavery must have a slavish soul. I am particularly moved by the
ex-slaves’ dedication to a cause higher than their own advantage.
And my imagination thrills to the picture of their marching through
Southern towns and past slave-holding plantations, summoning their
brethren to affirm their own dignity by putting their lives also in the
service of freedom and Union.
Opposite to this example of dignity triumphing over degradation
is the self-inflicted dehumanization of Herr Professor Immanuel
Rath in the classic German movie, The Blue Angel (1930). 5 A strict,
upright, gymnasium English teacher, Professor Rath goes to the local
night club to reprimand his wayward students who have been
attracted there by the siren singer, Lola Lola, and to scold her for corrupting
the young. But on entering into her presence, Rath is smitten
by Lola’s charms, and he returns the next night filled with desires
of his own. When he gallantly “defends her honor” against a brutish