This book deals with the essential philosophical/ethical dimension that concerns the ends and goods entrusted to medicine. It shows that medicine cannot be reduced to its scientific and technical aspects and that the constitutive philosophical aspects of medicine presently are in a state of crisis.

Medicine, besides being a scientifically based art of diagnosing and curing infirmities of many kinds, also possesses an essential philosophical and ethical dimension. It turns into anti-medicine if it no longer stands in the service of those goods and ends that are entrusted to it. Their nature is in no way known by natural science but can be clarified by philosophy. Consequently, medicine suffers from philosophical diseases of different degrees of gravity if its theory and practice are based on errors about its proper ends. The cure from the life-threatening philosophical diseases of medicine lies in a critique of philosophical mistakes that influence the theory and practice of medicine and in an understanding and practical implementation of those ethically relevant goods that constitute its true ends. At a time when these goods are by no means universally recognized or embodied in laws of medicine, some basic philosophical understanding of them and of the foundations of medical ethics is urgently required. The purpose of this volume is to provide this largely neglected part of general and medical education.

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1 The Nature and the Seven Goals of Medicine as Objects of a Dramatic Free Choice of the Physician Today.- 1. On the Nature of Medicine and the Physician. The Physician as Scientifically Trained Healer, as Practitioner of the 'Art of Medicine', as Ethicist, and as Moral Subject.- 1.1. The Physician as Scientifically Trained Healer, the Essence of Medicine as Empirical Inductive Science, and Its a priori Foundations.- 1.1.1. The Physician and the Role of Empirical Scientific Training.- 1.1.2. A Justification of Medicine as an Empirical Science against Hume's and Popper's Objections Raised against Induction.- 1.1.3. Immense Progress in Medicine as Experimental Science and as Scientifically Supported Medical Practice.- 1.1.4. Medicine as Practical or 'Pragmatic' Science and the Respective Values of Theoretical versus Practical Sciences.- 1.2. The Physician as 'Practical Artist' and Craftsman-and Progress in Medicine.- 1.3. On the Constitutive Role of a Philosophical Understanding of Man and Morality for Medicine as Science, and of Moral Commitments for the Physician as Practitioner.- 2. The Physician-Philosopher: Theoretical and Practical Philosophical and Ethical Aspects of Medicine.- 2.1. The Goods Medicine Is Called to Serve and the Indispensable Moral Choice of the Physician.- 2.2. The Seven Goods or' seven Ends' the Physician Should Serve and Respect.- 2.2.1. Medical Service to Human Life in Its Uniqueness and Specifically Personal Nature as well as in Its Right Place in the Whole Order of Goods.- 2.3. 'Health' as a Fundamental Goal of Medicine and as Disputed Question.- 2.3.1. The Question "What Is Human Health?" as a Philosophical and as Disputed Question.- The Nature of Health and Reductionism.- Utopian Notions of Health.- Objectivity or Subjectivity of Concepts of Health?.- 2.3.2. The Question "To Which Extent Should Health Be Promoted in Medicine?" as a Disputed Question.- 2.3.3. The Question "What Is the Place of Health in the Hierarchy of Human Goods?" as a Disputed Question.- 2.4. The Fight against Pain (Suffering) and for Pleasure and Physical and Mental Relief: Preventing, Alleviating, or Freeing from Suffering (Palliative Medicine)-Promoting Well-Being and Feeling Well.- 2.5. The Conscious Life of Man as Such and Personal Dignity.- 2.6. Integrity of the Human Bodily Form and Aesthetic Values.- 2.7. The General and Spiritual Good of Man and of His Vocation as Transcendent Goal and Guideline for Medicine.- 2.7.1. General Remarks on the Ways in Which This Transcendent Good of the Human Person Obliges the Physician.- 2.7.2. The Different Ways in Which This Transcendent Good of the Human Person Obliges the Physician.- 2.8. The Special Relationship between the Physician and the Absolute Good (God).- 2.9. The Religious Transformation of the Image of the Physician and the Goods Medicine Should Serve.- 2.10. The Remarkable World Wide Consensus on the Goods Medicine Should Serve.- 2.11. The Physician-Philosopher and the Nature of the 'Practical' Philosophy in Medicine with Respect to the Seven Goods.- 2.12. Conclusion of Our Reflections on the Goods Medicine Should Serve, and Theophrastus Paracelsus on the Transcendent Ends of Medicine.- 3. The Physician as Moral Agent and Further Hints at the Philosophical Diseases of Medicine and Their Cure.- 3.1. Importance of the Subject of Medicine and His Inalienable Rights as Person: Physicians, Nurses, and Other Health Professionals Are Not Mere Technicians or Instruments in the Service of Health and of the Other Goods of Medicine or of Patient Wishes but Acting Persons.- 3.2. Finding Anew Its Roots? A Word on the History and the Essential Ethical Dimension of Medicine-the Hippocratic Oath as More than an Ornament of the Medical Profession.- 3.3. Progress or Decline of Medicine with Respect to Its Value-Base and Third Philosophical-Ethical Dimension: Modern Medicine-Immense Progress or Regress behind the Age of the Medicine Man?.- 2 The Dignity of the Human Person as a 'Universal of Medical Ethics'.- 1. Prolegomena.- 1.1. The Theoretical and Practical Significance of Understanding Human Dignity.- 1.2. Can Human Dignity Be Known to Be an Objective, Universal and Simultaneously Uniquely Individual Value?.- 1.3. Can Consensus Be Reached about Human Dignity and Can It Function as a Common Ground for Medical Ethics-as a 'Medical Ethical Universal'?.- 1.4. The Role of Realist Phenomenological Philosophy in Showing Human Dignity to Be Truly a 'Medical Ethical Universal'.- 1.5. The Main Theses to Be Defended in This Chapter.- 1.6. Two Ways to Know What It Is to Be a Person: Immediate Phenomenological Experience of Persons, and Intuition into the Ontological Ground that Intelligibly Underlies Experience.- 2. What Is a Person? Ontological and Axiological Understanding of the Person.- 2.1. The Person as Ultimate Individual Subject of Rational Nature.- 2.1.1. Person as a Substance.- 2.1.2. The Person as 'Thing in Itself'.- 2.1.3. The Person as a Living Substance.- 2.1.4. Personal Individuality (Uniqueness).- 2.1.5. The Person as a Spiritual Substance and the Human Soul.- Arguments for the Existence of the Soul.- 2.1.6. The Person as an Individual Spiritual Substance in Relation to Other Persons.- 2.2. A Definition of the Person by Her 'Inviolable' Dignity.- 3. The Four Sources and Dimensions of Human Dignity and Their Characteristics.- 3.1. Ontological Dignity of the Human Person as Such and from the Very Beginning of Her Existence.- 3.2. Dignity of the Conscious and Rational Person and Its Levels.- 3.3. Third Source and Sort of Dignity: 'Acquired Dignity' and Moral Dignity.- 3.4. Fourth Source/Dimension of Dignity-Dignity as Gift/Bestowed Dignity.- 3.5. Relations between the Different Sources and Dimensions of Personal Dignity.- 4. Dignity as Object of Rational Knowledge and Answer to Some Objections against the Rational Knowability of Human Dignity.- 5. Human Dignity as a Unifying Bond among Men and Medical Professionals Worldwide.- 3 From the Morally Relevant Goals of Medicine to Medical Ethics On the Superiority of Moral Values over All Extramoral Goals of Medicine.- 1. Introductory Notes on Ethics in Its Relation to Medicine.- 2. The Ambiguity of the Notion of the Good: On the Totally New Quality of Moral Goodness and Evil in Comparison with all Other Goods and Evils.- 3. The Nature of Moral Goodness.- 3.1. Moral Values Are Objectively Good.- 3.2. Intrinsic Goodness (Value) Rather Than Being Merely Agreeable or Even Only Objectively Good for Me.- 3.3. Moral Values Are Necessarily L…