  The second problem for the Human Dignity Argument lies in its claim that dignity-grounding capacities have been diminished or eliminated whenever (a) we give an individual some of the physical components biologically necessary for the development of dignity-grounding capacities and (b) we do not give it significant opportunity to exercise those capacities. Consider that having adequate blood pressure is a physical component biologically necessary for dignity-grounding capacities. Stitching a wound on a mouse so that it regains adequate blood pressure, then, counts as giving it some of the physical components biologically necessary for the dignity-grounding capacities, but it fails to provide the mouse with a body sufficient for the significant exercise of those capacities. It is clearly false to maintain that such a medical procedure diminishes or eliminates those capacities or, more generally, that such a procedure violates human dignity in any way. Or, consider again DeGrazia’s views about the capacities of great apes. If he is right about those capacities, whenever we provide for the biological needs of a great ape while failing to provide them with intensive linguistic training, then we provide them components necessary for dignity-grounding capacities without the opportunity for exercising them. It is implausible that such an activity is unethical, as implied by the Human Dignity Argument, but even if it were, considerations of human dignity seem irrelevant here.