Daniel Sokol

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Daniel Sokol
Daniel Sokol.jpg
Daniel Sokol, Royal College of Physicians (2023)
Born1978 (age 4647)
Puyricard, France
Other namesEthics Man
Education Winchester College
Alma mater University of Oxford (BA)
Imperial College London (PhD)
Known for Medical ethics
President of the Osler Club of London (2023-2025)
Scientific career
Fields Medical ethics
Institutions Keele University
King's College London
St George's, University of London
Thesis Truth-telling and deception in contemporary medical practice : an empirical and philosophical analysis  (2006)
Doctoral advisor Tim Rhodes
Raanan Gillon
Website medicalethicist.net

Daniel K. Sokol (born 1978) is a barrister, medical ethicist, and international lecturer, known for his academic and journalistic writings on the ethics of medicine. [1] He is a member of 12 King's Bench Walk, a barristers' chambers in London, England. [1]

Contents

Under the sobriquet Ethics Man, Sokol writes a regular column in the British Medical Journal . He has criticised the decision making practices of university panels and, in response, founded Alpha Academic Appeals in 2012 to support students challenging unfair academic outcomes.

Early life and education

Daniel Sokol was born in Puyricard, France, to Ronald P. Sokol, [1] [2] and educated in France until the age of 11.[ citation needed ] He attended Winchester College before studying Linguistics and French Literature at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. [3] He received his Bachelor of Arts in 2001 and obtained a Wellcome Trust Award to study a master's degree in Social and Economic History (specialising in the History of Medicine) at Green College, Oxford. [3] He then studied for a Master's in Medical Ethics at Imperial College London and, under the supervision of Raanan Gillon and Tim Rhodes, completed a PhD in the subject, also funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Following his PhD, he was appointed a lecturer in Ethics at Keele University. In 2008, he moved to St George's, University of London, before qualifying as a barrister at the Inner Temple in 2011. [3] [4]

Career

In 2005, while senior lecturer in Clinical Ethics at Imperial College, London, Sokol co-authored, with Gillian Bergson, a textbook on medical ethics and law for students. [5] Since 2007, he has written a regular column, as Ethics Man, for the British Medical Journal . [6] [7] In 2012, Sokol published Doing Clinical Ethics, a textbook for clinicians. [8]

In October 2018 Book Guild Publishing released his book Tough Choices , a text aimed at a general readership. [9] [10] [11]

Sokol set up the Centre for Remedial Ethics in November 2019, which provides one-to-one medical ethics courses to clinicians undergoing disciplinary procedures. [12] [13]

University student appeals

Sokol has criticised the decision making practices of university panels, arguing that procedural shortcomings can result in unjust outcomes with serious consequences for students. [14] In response, he founded Alpha Academic Appeals in late 2012 to provide professional support for students seeking to challenge unfair academic decisions. [14] This led to King's College London terminating his appointment as an honorary member of the teaching staff in 2014 after he had held the position for less than a year. This was on the basis that Alpha was charging students for services that they could allegedly obtain for free from the students' union, and therefore it would be undesirable for the College to continue its association with him. [15] [16]

Duty of care during pandemics

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. [17] [18] [19] He highlights the ethical conflict faced by healthcare workers during deadly pandemics, where their duty to care for individuals clashes with their duty to protect their own lives and families. [20] [21] [22] [23]

History of medicine

American professor of infectious diseases, Charles S. Bryan, notes Sokol to have studied and written on medical ethics surrounding Sir William Osler and in his Encyclopaedia of Osler notes that Sokol, writing in the British Medical Journal in 2007, interprets Aequanimitas as an essay that "tackles head-on a timeless question: what makes a good doctor?" [24] In his article William Osler and the jubjub of ethics; or how to teach medical ethics in the 21st century (2007), Sokol notes that Osler’s view of ethics centred on personal character and virtues, aiming to form good doctors, teachers, and students through strong moral habits rather than by analysing specific moral problems. [25] He argues that medical ethics education today should follow this example by focusing on real interactions between doctors and patients, supported by ethics discussions on hospital wards, instead of relying mostly on classroom lectures. [25]

Personal life

In his personal life, Sokol is a semi-professional magician. [26] [27] He is married to Samantha, a neurosurgeon. [1]

Other roles

Sokol has been a visiting scholar in bioethics at Washington Hospital Center, Washington, D.C., 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 has been a senior editor of the Postgraduate Medical Journal . [28] Since 2020 Sokol has chaired the Metropolitan Police Research Ethics Committee. [29] From 2023 to 2025, he was president of the Osler Club of London. [3]

Selected publications

Articles

Books

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Alumni Profile: Daniel Sokol". Green Templeton College. Archived from the original on 25 September 2025. Retrieved 25 September 2025.
  2. Sokol, Daniel (10 January 2025). "The importance of a good bedside manner". Law Gazette. Retrieved 15 October 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "President & Council". The Osler Club of London. Archived from the original on 27 September 2025. Retrieved 27 September 2025.
  4. "Advocacy prize for pupils" (PDF). Innerview. 2012. p. 16. Retrieved 13 October 2025.
  5. Quigley, M. (1 September 2006). "Medical ethics and law—surviving on the wards and passing exams" . Journal of Medical Ethics. 32 (9): 556–557. doi:10.1136/jme.2006.016642. ISSN   0306-6800.
  6. Papanikitas, Andrew (1 September 2025). "Books: From error to ethics: Five essential lessons from teaching clinicians in trouble". British Journal of General Practice. 75 (758): 417–417. doi:10.3399/bjgp25X743097. ISSN   0960-1643 . Retrieved 25 September 2025.
  7. Britten, Simon (2021). "9. Clinical guidelines in trauma and orthopaedics". In Jo, Samanta; Ash, Samanta (eds.). Clinical Guidelines and the Law of Medical Negligence: Multidisciplinary and International Perspectives. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 278. ISBN   978-1-78990-889-3.
  8. "Book Reviews - Ministry of Ethics .co.uk". ministryofethics.co.uk. Retrieved 13 October 2025.
  9. Naeem, Maryam (April 2019). "Books: Tough Choices: Stories from the Front Line of Medical Ethics: The Morality of Medicine". The British Journal of General Practice: The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners. 69 (681): 200–201. doi:10.3399/bjgp19X702065. ISSN   1478-5242.
  10. "Book Review: Tough Choices by Daniel Sokol". Pi Media. 16 January 2019. Retrieved 13 October 2025.
  11. Robins, Sallie. "Tough Choices: Stories from the Front Line of Medical Ethics by Daniel Sokol - Medical Journalists' Association". mjauk.org. Retrieved 15 October 2025.
  12. "Remedial Ethics for Clinicians". 8 December 2019.
  13. "Daniel K Sokol". Dr Daniel K Sokol. Archived from the original on 13 October 2025. Retrieved 13 October 2025.
  14. 1 2 Parr, Chris (8 August 2013). "Appeal of appeals firm: it's not just money-making, says founder". Times Higher Education. Archived from the original on 13 October 2025. Retrieved 13 October 2025.
  15. "Lawyer loses lectureship over student appeals business". 2 January 2014.
  16. Garner, Richard (2014). "King's College London terminates contract of lecturer who set up legal firm to help students challenge exam results". The Independent . Archived from the original on 13 October 2025. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
  17. Bennett, Belinda; KC, Ian Freckelton AO; Wolf, Gabrielle (2022). "COVID-19: law and regulation". COVID-19, Law & Regulation: Rights, Freedoms, and Obligations in a Pandemic. Oxford University Press. p. 19. ISBN   978-0-19-265049-8.
  18. Cox, Caitríona L. (August 2020). "'Healthcare Heroes': problems with media focus on heroism from healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic". Journal of Medical Ethics. 46 (8): 510–513. doi:10.1136/medethics-2020-106398. ISSN   1473-4257. PMID   32546658.
  19. Bennett, Belinda; Freckelton, Ian R.; Wolf, Gabrielle (2023). "10.COVID-19 and the workplace and occupational health and safety". COVID-19, Law and Regulation: Rights, Freedoms, and Obligations in a Pandemic. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-289674-2.
  20. Koch, Tom (2024). "22. Care, compassion, or cost: redefining the basis of treatment in ethics and law". Seeking Medicine’s Moral Centre: Ethics, Bioethics, and Assisted Dying. Ethics International Press. ISBN   978-1-80441-534-4.
  21. Boylan, Michael (2022). Ethical Public Health Policy Within Pandemics: Theory and Practice in Ethical Pandemic Administration. Springer. p. 126. ISBN   978-3-030-99692-5.
  22. King, Helen (2019). Hippocrates Now: The ‘Father of Medicine’ in the Internet Age. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 103. ISBN   978-1-350-00589-1.
  23. Chiu, James Shing Ping; Lee, Albert; Tong, Kar-wai (2023). "3. Medico-legal challenges and ethical dilemmas in day-to-day peace". In Chiu, James Shing Ping; Lee, Albert; Tong, Kar-wai (eds.). Healthcare Law and Ethics: Principles & Practices. City University of Hong Kong Press. p. 65. ISBN   978-962-937-654-3.
  24. Bryan, p.12
  25. 1 2 Bryan, p.235
  26. Lipsett, Anthea (2006). "An ethicist skilled in the magical arts of deception". Times Higher Education .
  27. Sokol, Daniel (2016). "Dr Daniel K Sokol". medicalethicist.net. Archived from the original on 13 October 2025.
  28. "Attorney Profiles". Lexhelp | International Lawyer | Avocat International. Archived from the original on 14 October 2025. Retrieved 14 October 2025.
  29. "Met Research Ethics Committee (MetREC)". www.met.police.uk. Retrieved 14 October 2025.

Bibliography

Further reading