"Death with dignity"

"Death with dignity" is one of the popular euphemisms used to defend euthanasia. In one sense, proponents are correct. The aging process can be very undignified. Losing control of your mind and/or body is painfully undignified. 

Of course, when you stop to think about it, human life is replete with little indignities. Childbearing is undignified. Childrearing is often undignified. Sex is undignified. Defecation is undignified. Breaking wind is undignified. Sickness is often undignified, both for the patient and the caregiver. 

Comedy is undignified. Comedy lampoons human foibles. 

Many essential occupations are undignified. Indeed, there's a whole TV series (Dirty Jobs) which explores that topic.

To a great extent, we are grubby little creatures. That's an ineluctable component of our physicality. We take ourselves far too seriously if we imagine that our "dignity" is all that important. 

There is, however, a different kind of dignity. Moral dignity. This requires a contrast between a person's undignified situation and how, through grace and courage, they cope with their undignified situation. There's a special kind of beauty that only shines forth in the midst of moral and physical ugliness. Goodness in spite of badness. Bringing good out of evil. 

That's a central feature of the Christian worldview. That's one reason God predestined the Fall in the first place. There's a unique kind of good, a second-order good, that's only possible in the face of evil. That's when it rises to the occasion–like a flower rising out of the underlying decay.