Although international documents concerning human rights directly or indirectly refer to the human being dignity, this concept is not defined and this ambiguity makes this term to seem lack content. In the bioethics field, one of the lately adopted documents, the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (from 2005) is very relevant because it suggests as criteria for dignity respect: the research should expose the person to minimum risks only, it should be carried out in the health interest of the ones in the same category and it should be compatible with the protection of the individual rights. Dignity can be understood only in relation with the other principles of bioethics: autonomy, responsibility, respect of human being, vulnerability, the individual's integrity, respect of private life etc, which represent a continuation of human rights in the field of biomedicine. The "adventure" of bioethics started with the qualification of the human genome as a "humanity common patrimony". The human being has a series of rights that are inherent to this quality and whose inobservance would damage the human essence that it contains, the set of qualities that differentiates us from the other species. At the same time, the correlative obligation concerns the protection of this inherited patrimony and the provision of its continuity over generations. The concept of dignity is indispensable to this process. Humanity, in its global aspect, and each being that is a part of it, has to enjoy this right within the limits of dignity and of all other fundamental rights. In the legal order of the European Union, "dignity" includes the respect of the right to life and person's integrity the interdiction of torture, of degrading and inhuman treatments or punishments, the interdiction of slavery and of forced labor. The article also contains some references to the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in this field, both from the bioethical perspective and from the legal one in general.
