The human person as the image of God

pp. 43-54

in: David C. Thomasma, David N. Weisstub, Christian Hervé, Personhood and health care, Berlin, Springer, 2001

Abstract

These rights are, in a sense, a priori: independent of any power that would be the original share of each human being in the blind distribution of nature’s energy and society’s influence... Prior to all entitlement: to all tradition, all jurisprudence, all granting of privileges... Or is it perhaps the case that it’s a priori may signify an ineluctable authority... the authority that is, perhaps — but before all theology — in the respect of the rights of man itself, God’s original coming to the mind of man (1994: 117–17).