title: Life is uncertain. death is certain. Buddhism and palliative care.
abstract: It is part of a palliative care assessment to identify patients' spiritual needs. According to Buddhism, suffering is inherent to all human beings. Advice on how suffering can be reduced in the course of serious illness might be helpful to patients with incurable and progressive diseases. Palliative care could benefit from Buddhist insights in the form of compassionate care and relating death to life. Buddhist teachings may lead to a more profound understanding of incurable diseases and offer patients the means by which to focus their minds while dealing with physical symptoms and ailments. This might not only be beneficial to followers of Buddhism but to all patients.
authors.affiliation: Palliative Care Unit, Department of Internal Medicine I, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. eva.masel@meduniwien.ac.at
authors.forename: Eva K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Masel
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schur
authors.forename: Herbert H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Watzke
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology; D002016:Buddhism / Q000523:psychology*; D003643:Death; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010166:Palliative Care; D010686:Philosophy, Medical