Bioethical concepts of health in medicine

As a fundamental human need, and consequently one of the principal ethical values, health has to be examined both from the experiential and normative aspects. The following concepts of health have successively developed and found their place in internal medicine: a) absence of manifest disorders, b) state of complete well-being, c) active process aimed at achieving consistency of functions in a dynamic equilibrium with the environment, in order to secure optimum satisfaction of biological and cultural needs. The essential unity of the somatic, psychic, social and spiritual dimensions of the human person should be considered, when assessing health of individual subjects as well as of the whole community.