Dignity is a useless concept

I don't know about medical ethics but I know when a patient is
treated in such a way that his or her "dignity" is lost. While working in
Kenya I noticed that patients could maintain dignity even though there
were two to a bed; head to toe. There was a sort of switching off attitude
by the one patient when we came to examining the other, so that the second
patient's "dignity" could be preserved.
I noticed the same here in the UK if patients were too crowded in a
casualty or recovery room. If a patient collapsed and needed urgent
resuscitation the same "Switch off" attitude could be seen in the others.
It seems as though we humans have a way of protecting our own "dignity"
and that of others even in the most confined and undignified situations.

Competing interests:
None declared