Value of life, health, illness and death

Abstract

In order to appreciate the value of life, health, disease and death it is necessary to depart form the basic constituents of man, that especial being that defies any definition inasmuch as he is open to different values and he is also rational, transcendent, free, responsible, contingent and social; he is a being-in-the-world and at the same time a being whose existence is a "task", a "project", a "something-to be done", a "who", a person. Life is qualified as the highest value and the primordial one since it is necessary to achieve the evaluation and fulfillment of other values. Some characteristics of human life are analyzed and it is emphasized how that living means "coexistence" in its fullest significance. Health in itself constitutes an especial value but it finds its highest meaning and its legitimate reason for being because of its contribution for the optimal development of the human being as such. In the same way this contribution to the complete fulfillment of man justifies and gives clear significance to the activity of those people dedicated to the health earing of their fellow human beings. Considering the traditional national point of view neither suffering, disease or death have a satisfactory explanation: all of them are absurd Disease could become a positive factor if by itself induces the person to gain insight in his own capacities and real inner dimensions, allowing him to develop true "attitude values". Death, one of the limits of existence -opposite to the initial one belongs to the living dimension and it happens normally because of the physical body. However, thanks to this body it is possible to be a human person and without it that concept would be impossible to be conceived. Conscious and unconscious ideas about death somehow molds the "project" of life por each person; it gives him unity and totality and forces him to assume in his own existence the thinking of "the beyond" (life after death). In this way the terminal limit acquires a positive value in human life.