Studia Pastoralne
Rocznik Wydziału Teologicznego UŚ

END-OF-LIFE CARE IN GERMANY. An overview
Summary
The author presents an overview on the issue of care for the terminally ill from the triple perspective: a) epidemiological and statistical perspective, b) the perspective of hospital operators and insurance companies, c) the social-political and medical-ethical perspective. All the perspectives are analysed in details. The author of the paper emphasises that a terminally ill person who receives a palliative care should not be viewed only as a separated victim of the illness. Of course from the medical point of view in such cases life quality is systematically reduced, however a palliative patient does not only have fears and worries, but also hope which embraces his family and the nearest and dearest. The end of life can contribute to realisation of its finitude and looking at death as a sort of fulfilment of life. Experience of life coming to its end by persons involved in palliative care may be not only something passive, but an active enrichment of their own existence.