The Role of Human Dignity in EU Bioethics Politics: A Bridge-Building Incentive or a Conflict-Driving Force?

Human dignity has been institutionalized in the EU treaties. Politically consensual but culturally sensitive, it is increasingly challenged by the growing politicization of morality issues within the European institutions. For example, human dignity underlies fierce debates on abortion and human embryonic stem cell research. Both issues pertain to the destruction of human embryos, and question the definition of human life. In this context, the secular – but not value-free – notion of human dignity is embraced by various political, social and religious actors seeking to defend specific worldviews. This paper investigates the role of human dignity in the EU governance of bioethics. It sheds light on the political uses of human dignity and its relative meanings (e.g. embryo’s v. woman’s dignity). As bioethics triggers ideological struggles between liberals and conservatives, the study also evaluates the consensus-building, or conflict-breaking, potential of human dignity. In order to study the discursive and competitive effects of this value in EU bioethics politics, I rely on a qualitative discourse analysis of semi-structured interviews with (religious) civil society organizations. The timeframe of the research runs from the adoption of the 2002 Van Lancker report on sexual and reproductive health and rights, to the European citizens’ initiative ‘One of Us’ (2012). The results show that the very sharing of common principles might not be enough to reach consensus. Contentious beliefs sustain framing strategies which feed culture war dynamics in the contest for the definition of the European polity as a community of values.