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发帖数: 29853 | 1 Human dignity has long been understood in this country to be innate. When
the Framers proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are
created equal” and “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights,” they referred to a vision of mankind in which all humans are
created in the image of God and therefore of inherent worth. That vision is
the foundation upon which this Nation was built.
The corollary of that principle is that human dignity cannot be taken away
by the government. Slaves did not lose their dignity (any more than they
lost their humanity) because the government allowed them to be enslaved.
Those held in internment camps did not lose their dignity because the
government confined them. And those denied governmental benefits certainly
do not lose their dignity because the government denies them those benefits.
The government cannot bestow dignity, and it cannot take it away. |
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