The reasonableness of a regulation…is determined by the good standards accepted by the majority of people in a democratic society and state of law, and there is none better and more accepted than basic respect for humans. A free and civilized society is distinguished from a barbaric and oppressive society by the degree to which it treats a human being as a human being. Lofty classic expression was given to this by the Mishnah: "…whosoever preserves a single soul – Scripture ascribes to him as though he had preserved an entire world…" (M. Sanhedrin 4:5)…
…Just as the rabbis were bold enough to waive all prohibitions instituted by them where
necessary to preserve human dignity, [our law] should be cautious in sacrificing human dignity on the altar of any other requirement whatsoever. The concept of 'human dignity' is not expressly defined, but one may infer from all the cases in which the sources speak of it that violation of such dignity consists of any act that brings scorn, shame, or embarrassment to a person. Thus to strip the clothes off someone in a public place was deemed an infraction of human dignity (BT Menahot 37b) as was preventing a person from
attending to his bodily needs (BT Eruvin 41b)…
It is equally forbidden to touch a person merely suspected of a wrong (BT Menahot 37b). That is the situation in the case before us: even were we permitted to prevent the commission of a wrongful act by removing drugs from the body of a person when it is clearly and demonstrably known that the drugs are in his body, there is no authority to penetrate his body merely to search, to establish whether an offense has been committed or not. The act of
preventing the commission of an offence is intended to prevent the continuance of an ongoing
offence the commission of which has already begun, and not to prevent an offence the commission of which is only suspected.
To conclude, human dignity is supreme since it prevails over the prohibition of introducing drugs into prison, if that can only be enforced by a violation of the body of a person and his dignity.
[From Rabbis for Human Rights Website, www.rhr-na.org]
Suggested Discussion Questions:
1. According to this text, how is human dignity defined? How does this definition inform criminal justice practices?
2. It is written that, "A free and civilized society is distinguished from a barbaric and oppressive society by the degree to which it treats a human being as a human being": does this statement offer insight into the belief that Israel should be more harshly judged for human rights violations than its surrounding nations? Why or why not?
Time Period: Contemporary (The Yom Kippur War until the present-day)