Jacob M. Appel (born February 21, 1973) is an American polymath, author, bioethicist, physician, lawyer and social critic. He is best known for his short stories, his work as a playwright, and his writing in the fields of reproductive ethics, organ donation, neuroethics, and euthanasia. Appel's novel The Man Who Wouldn't Stand Up won the Dundee International Book Prize in 2012. He is the director of Ethics Education in Psychiatry and a professor of psychiatry and medical education at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and he practices emergency psychiatry at the adjoining Mount Sinai Health System. Appel is the subject of the 2019 documentary film Jacob by director Jon Stahl. Appel coined the term "whitecoat washing" to refer to nations using medical collaboration to distract from human rights abuses.

Education

Appel was born in the Bronx to Gerald B. Appel and Alice Appel and raised in Scarsdale, New York and Branford, Connecticut. He completed his Bachelor of Arts at Brown University with double majors in English and American literature and in history (1995). He holds a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School (2003) and a Doctor of Medicine from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (2009). He completed his medical residency in psychiatry and medical fellowship in psychosomatic medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine as well as seven additional graduate degrees. He completed his medical residency in clinical psychiatry and medical fellowship in psychosomatic medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He has written that exposure to literature should be a medical school admissions requirement.

Academic bioethics

Appel began his career in academic bioethics at Brown University, where he taught until 2005. He now serves on the faculty of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, where he is Professor of Psychiatry and Medicine Education. He is also the Director of Ethics Education in Psychiatry and Medical Director of the East Harlem Health Outreach Project's mental health clinic. He has also taught medical ethics at New York University, Columbia University, and Albany Medical College. He is the author of a "Bioethics in Action" curriculum for The New York Times. Appel was also previously a columnist for The Huffington Post and Opposing Views. Appel has published on a range of topics in academic bioethics including advocating for the decriminalization of assisted suicide, raising the possibility that this might be made available to both the terminally ill and those with intractable, long-term mental illness, and the Groningen Protocol. He has written in favor of abortion rights and fertility treatment for same-sex couples, as well as against electronic medical records, which he sees as poorly secured against hacking. He has also argued in favor of the legalization of prostitution and polygamy between consenting adults. He has raised concerns regarding the possibility that employers will require their employees to use pharmaceuticals for cognitive enhancement and has urged that death row inmates be eligible to receive kidney transplants. Appel has opposed the forcible feeding of hunger strikers, both in domestic prisons and at Guantanamo Bay.

Politics

Appel has written in support of an "open border" immigration policy.

Writing

Appel has taught creative writing at the Gotham Writers' Workshop and New York University. He served as writer-in-residence at Yeshiva College in 2013. As of 2023, he is Vice President and Treasurer of the National Book Critics Circle.

Books

Plays