Priv.-Doz. Dr. med. Thomas Bohrer explores philosophical approaches in the Western tradition and their relevance for palliative medicine. Palliative care deals not only with symptom relief and patient self-determination, but also with the existence, dignity, finitude, life and death of the human being — classic subjects of philosophy.
The article asks which philosophical aspects are already present in palliative medicine. It distinguishes ontology, anthropology, ethics and humanity: what life, dying and death are; what image of the human being is assumed; and how sick and dying people should be treated.
Bohrer sketches several thinkers. Socrates stressed care of the soul and critically questioned what people assume to be good. Plato reflected on truth, the good and the immortality of the soul. Aristotle saw the human being as directed toward a goal and understood finitude not only as disaster but as part of fulfilment. Thomas Aquinas joined Aristotelian thought with Christian hope, while Descartes separated body and mind and shaped modern medicine’s dualism.
Schopenhauer introduced an ethics of compassion that resonates strongly with palliative care, especially the wish that living beings be spared pain. Heidegger’s analysis of existence and death helps ground ideas of dignity and self-determination.
Bohrer argues that modern palliative medicine can overcome the Cartesian split between body and mind. It accepts suffering and dying as part of human life rather than as mere defeat. If the uniqueness of each life and death stands above economic interests, palliative medicine becomes a modern form of philosophy.
