  Human dignity is a kind of “unconditioned and incomparable worth” (Karpowicz et al. 2005, 119) and individuals with dignity are therefore “uniquely valuable and worthy of respect” (ibid., 120). Human dignity, understood in this rarefied way, is distinct from the common kind of dignity manifested by someone who responds to difficult circumstances in a dignified manner. Although a person can be stripped of this common kind of dignity by being placed in degrading circumstances such treatment would be said to violate, not eliminate or diminish, human dignity in the rarefied sense; thus the two concepts are distinct. Indeed, the individual’s dignity in the rarefied sense is often alleged to explain what is problematic about eliminating this common kind of dignity.