Increasingly, the term ‘dignity’ is becoming a part of contemporary discussions of health care. Phrases such as ‘respect for human dignity’, ‘treatment with dignity’, ‘death with dignity’ and the ‘right to dignity’ are so commonplace as to have almost become clichés. This is especially so in the context of older people. In the UK, the NHS Plan uses the term ‘dignity’ on a number of occasions (Chapter 15 is entitled ‘Dignity, security and independence in old age’) and the National Service Framework for Older People explicitly mentions dignity in relation to person-centred care. However, practice has often failed to measure up to this much-cited aspiration.