Practically Human – (I/DD Human Dignity) Part I

What makes us human? What makes you you? And what gives you value, or worth as a human being? Yes, this is the stuff of thousands of years of heady philosophy and even theology, but it’s also a seriously practical question for those of us in the human services field. Why do we care about serving humans if we don’t have a clue about why humans are worth serving?

Beyond the therapeutic importance of self-esteem (how I see myself from the inside), what guides my esteem for others? Why are they valuable, or are they? Of course, I value my wife and kids, but what about the individual I don’t personally know, with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities? What about the person on the autism spectrum, or with Down’s Syndrome, or Trisomy 18?

Here are the big questions (and the words of the day): is a person’s value determined by intrinsic, relational worth (are they valuable and important simply because of the fact of their humanity and our human relationship)? Or is a person’s value determined by their extrinsic, transactional worth (are they valuable and important because someone else decides that they are – or possibly, are not – and what they can or can’t do for me)?

For example, our cats provide us with amusement, companionship, animal interaction. We feed them, change their litter and give them affection. I’m not so attached to the stray feral cat in the neighborhood. It would likely be best to have it caught and sterilized. If it can’t be adopted, it might even be euthanized. But no cat has ever spoken to me about its own dignity or worth as a cat. Its value is primarily extrinsic/transactional – the worth that I assign it based on the circumstances. (We’ll talk about the partially intrinsic value of animals and plants and other things in a later post).

But what about people? More next time – but spoiler alert – at Cheyenne Village, we believe that every human being has intrinsic-relational value, worth and dignity, regardless of ability. We believe in providing support at the highest level to the I/DD community – because they are valuable in and of themselves – not because of extrinsic-transactional value – anything they can do for us.