Gibt es ein Recht auf Nicht-Leiden? Umgang mit Leid und Behinderung

• Authors: Brigitte Huber

Title variants

EN

IS THERE A RIGHT TO NON-SUFFERING? COPING WITH PAIN, SUFFERING AND DISABILITIES

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

Physicians have the duty to relieve pain. In this article we search both for definitions of pain and suffering, chronical diseases and disabilities and the meaning of such. Like “cancer” the term “disability” often is associated with defects and suffering and considered ab-normal. What causes suffering and pain is not so much the impairment or disability itself but rather the experience of discrimination. People with disabilities expect that their dignity be respected and that they be treated with equality. Suffering and pain should be a motive for changing one’s way of thinking. Euthanasia, however, is not the answer to extreme pain. Pastoral care, but also Viktor Frankl and his logo-therapy, help us understand the process of coping with pain, suffering and disabilities and find meaning to it. Theodicy, the ever-unanswered question to “why”, is of no help. The result of our investigation is that there is no right to non-suffering but a right to solidarity in support by society. Psalm 90,12 (“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom”) reminds us of the fragility and finite nature of life and helps us accept this condition of human life.

Keywords

EN

SUFFERING; EUTHANASIA; VIKTOR FRANKL; THEODICY

• Publisher: Oficyna Wydawnicza Epigram
• Journal: Filo-Sofija
• Year: 2008
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 8
• Pages: 79-96

Contributors

author

Brigitte Huber