Final "Read This Book"

Gilbert Meilaender's concluding remarks about suicide and dignity are more helpful.  The misery of the progressive disorder that accompanies aging and many diseases "undermines our hope to flourish."  A straightforward utilitarian calculus could thus lead to the conclusion that one's life has no value to me. (75)  In other words, my human dignity is running a deficit.

Yet personal dignity is not an exercise in comparative valuation, it still demands respect because we are not gods, we are embodied and our bodies are not husks to be shucked when our minds desire.  The "personal dignity" of the embodied life reminds us that there is dignity in me, not simply certain benefits for me.  (Assistance in) suicide valorizes our freedom at the expense of denying our nature.