Ethical and existential aspects of lifestyle changes

Abstract

Background  Many people change their lifestyle and such changes can be either voluntary or involuntary. Often, some sort of crisis forces people to change their lifestyles. Therefore, the difficult existential questions become relevant to those who have been forced to change their lifestyle.

Methods  This paper will explore different kinds of lifestyle changes within an ethical and existential context. The ethical context is constituted by the Danish ethicist K.E. Løgstrup and his thoughts on the basic conditions of life for the human being. The existential context is constituted by questions dealing with the foundations of our existence and which man cannot avoid.

Results  In the examples given, the patients seldom receive any help to process their existential questions and as a consequence their problems become more severe.

Conclusion  It is important to treat every patient as a subject and to take care of not only his or her medical problems but also of the patient´s existential questions generated by the medical problems.