[Experiences from terminal care. Anthropological principles in human practice].

Paper gives the personal account by physiotherapist working in hospitals and geriatric care centers compelled to give moral assistance to old people engaged in the process of dying without being prepared for it. Moral assistance ad hoc is necessitated by compassion and by patient's struggle to come to terms with an extreme situation. To grasp the real meaning of some main topics of philosophical and theological anthropology is advocated here as a means to prepare assisting person effectively and practically for this task. Topics discussed are: Personal presence of a human being, the human soul, vital activity vs. higher life; experiences of good and evil in one's life time; success and loss in terms of social values; human dignity.