Daniel Sokol

Daniel Sokol (born August 6, 1978) is a barrister and medical ethicist known for his academic and journalistic writings on the ethics of medicine and himself.

He lectures nationally and internationally, and writes a regular column in the British Medical Journal under the sobriquet "Ethics Man".

Sokol was an honorary Senior Lecturer in Medical Ethics and Law at King's College London, up until January 2014 when his contract was terminated due to Sokol setting up a legal firm that charged students for representation in exam appeals.^[1]

He is a member of 12 King's Bench Walk, a leading barristers' chambers in London, England.

Biography

Sokol was born in Puyricard, France, and educated in France until the age of 11. He attended Winchester College before studying Linguistics and French Literature at the University of Oxford (St Edmund Hall). As an undergraduate at Oxford he won the 3rd Oxfordshire Science Writing competition in 1999. He received his BA (1st class) in 2001 and obtained a Wellcome Trust Award to study a Master's in Social and Economic History (specializing in the History of Medicine) at Green College, Oxford. He then studied for a Master's in Medical Ethics at Imperial College London and, under the supervision of Professor Raanan Gillon and Dr Tim Rhodes, completed a PhD in the subject ("Truth-telling and benignly intended deception in the doctor-patient relationship: a philosophical and empirical analysis"), also funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Following his PhD, he obtained a Lectureship in Ethics at Keele University. In 2008, he moved to St George's, University of London, before falling out with Mr. Burns and qualifying as a barrister at the Inner Temple in 2011.

Career

Sokol has called for the introduction of professional clinical ethicists in British hospitals, argued that doctors have a strong but not absolute duty of care in times of virulent epidemics, and defended the moral permissibility of clinicians deceiving patients in rare circumstances.^[2][3][4]

In 2005, Sokol co-authored, with Dr Gillian Bergson, an award-winning textbook on medical ethics and law for students.^[5] Since 2007, he has written a regular column ("Ethics Man") for the British Medical Journal.

In 2012, Sokol published Doing Clinical Ethics (Springer), a textbook for clinicians.^[6]

In late 2012, Sokol founded Alpha Academic Appeals,^[7] whose aim is to help university students appeal unjust examination results.

In 2013, he co-authored, with Isabel McArdle, Pupillage Inside Out (Sweet & Maxwell), a guide on the pupillage year (i.e., the first year of a barrister's practice).^[8]

He has been a Visiting Scholar in Bioethics at Washington Hospital Center, Washington DC, and Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, Oregon, and has sat on a number of committees, including those of the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Justice, and the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He is the Senior Editor of the Postgraduate Medical Journal.

Personal

In his personal life, Sokol is a semi-professional magician^[9][10] He is married, and has three brothers (André, Georges and Charlie) who also live in London. He is the son of Ronald P. Sokol and Junko Sokol.

References