MEDICAL NIHILISM: THE BIOLOGICAL CAPTURE OF HUMAN EXISTENCE

Medical nihilism (Stenga Jacob, 2018), traditionally conceived as skepticism about the efficacy of medical interventions, can also be understood as a structural reduction of human existence to biological and pathological categories. The pervasive medicalization of daily life and the expansion of biomedical technologies transform not only treatment practices but the very perception of human life. Ordinary experience–emotions, behaviors, and bodily states are increasingly pathologized, producing what can be described as the “biological capture” of existence. This process obscures subjective meaning, diminishes autonomy, and substitutes scientific criteria for traditional frameworks of value. Drawing on Foucault’s biopolitics, Illich’s critique of medicalization, and Jonas’ ethics of responsibility, this study argues that medical nihilism entails both epistemic and normative consequences. To counteract these tendencies, it advocates reintegration of subjectivity, narrative approaches in care, and bioethical frameworks that reconcile scientific rationality with existential significance. Recognizing medical nihilism thus requires recalibrating medicine’s role to place human dignity, ethical reflection, and the search for meaning at the center of health practices.