Human beings are unique animals in that they can reason and make free choices through their spiritual souls, unlike other animals. As beings with both bodies and souls closely united, humans are capable of self-direction and moral decision-making. Each individual person has inherent dignity and worth because they are created in the image of God, regardless of personal characteristics or their status within social structures.

1. Timothy Kwok
Jethro Manalo

2. Man is an animal, but he is more than that. He
exhibits an activity that brute animals do not. He can
reason, and he can make free choices. Although he has
five external senses, internal senses (i.e., imagination,
sense memory, etc), man can reason to conclusions on
the basis of judgments composed of concepts (i.e., All
dogs are animals, Fido is a dog), and he can make
choices that are contrary to his appetites
(McManaman, 2009).

3. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms, “the
human person, made in the image of God, is a being at
once corporeal and spiritual”. The human body is
human and living precisely because it is animated by a
spiritual soul. So closely united are body and soul in
the human person that one must consider the soul to
be the “form” of the “body.”

4.  Only human persons are considered moral agents,
precisely because they are capable of self-direction
(intention) and presumably because they enjoy the
knowledge of and ability to make choices (freedom).
 Only human events are properly referred to as moral

5.  What is „good‟ is always considered 'good-for-persons';
what is 'evil' is 'evil-for-persons'.

6.  Every human person is unique.
At the same time, however, we are aware of the
danger of ‘Valuing‘ persons as such, ranking
them in a hierarchy. Most social structures have a
tendency to ‘Value’ or reward certain personal
characteristics that happen to be advantageous
for that structure. A technologically advanced
society, for instance, will tend to reward persons
who exhibit technological skills, giving the
impression that these persons are more valuable
than those without the same skills.

7. Christians have always claimed that the human person
— each and every human person — is created in the
image and likeness of God. On the basis of this
creation in God's image alone, the human person
enjoys dignity and is worthy of respect. Even when
Christians lived in and accepted hierarchically
structured societies.

8.  Mcmanaman, D. (2009) “What is a Human Person?”
http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/mcm/mcm_104hu
manperson.html
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozgCOMybg3U