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Jacob Appel

Bioethicist and Writer

Jacob M. Appel is a bioethicist and fiction writer. He holds a B.A. and an M.A. from Brown University, an M.A. and an M.Phil. from Columbia University, an M.D. from Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, an M.F.A. in creative writing from New York University, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He has most recently taught at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and at the Gotham Writers Workshop in New York City. He publishes in the field of bioethics and contributes to such publications as the Journal of Clinical Ethics, the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, and the Bulletin of the History of Medicine. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Daily News, The Chicago Tribune, and other publications.

Appel has also published short fiction in more than one hundred literary journals. His short story, Shell Game With Organs, won the Boston Review Short Fiction Contest in 1998. His story about two census takers, "Counting," was shortlisted for the O. Henry Award in 2001. Other stories received "special mention" for the Pushcart Prize in 2006 and 2007.

He is admitted to the practice of law in New York State and Rhode Island, and is a licensed New York City sightseeing guide.

Appel contributed a Dangerous Idea to Big Think's "Month of Thinking Dangerously," advocating that we add trace amounts of lithium to our drinking water to help reduce the suicide rate.

Appel is a Big Think Delphi Fellow.

Legalize Prostitution, Polygamy, Incest and Bestiality

The objections to all of these phenomena are really not what people say they are.

All Medicine Should Be Over the Counter

The theory is we should protect people from themselves.

We Need to Protect the Rights of Foreigners

The people who waved their American flags and shout about patriotism and at the same time don’t want immigrants to come across our borders or are concerned about illegal immigrants have missed the entire point of America.

Immigrants Are the Powerhouse to the American Economy

If you were really concerned about expenditures on entitlements, you would take people whose families have lived here for a very long time and weren’t being economically productive and you would deport them.

Can Parents Choose to Have Gay Children?

There are also outliers like me who would choose to have female children or gay children and would balance things out.

Surprising Science

We Shouldn’t Worry About “Designer Babies”

In vitro babies should be pre-screened for severe birth defects, argues Jacob Appel. If this creates a slippery slope, parents can find “level places on it” (and maybe save money […]

Parents Should Be Allowed to Choose the Sexual Orientation of Their Children

Appel thinks it’s most important that children be born into families that want them. “My concern is for the potential gay child born into the bigoted family who mistreats that […]

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Let Everyone Into America

Appel thinks the most pressing ethical issue of our time is “the arbitrary distinction that people have more or fewer rights because they were born on one side of the […]

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2 min

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All Medicine Should Be Over-the-Counter

Forcing people to make a doctor’s appointment in order to get medicine keeps some people from getting the care they need.

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2 min

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Legalize Prostitution, Polygamy, Bestiality and Incest

In objecting to all of these phenomena, people say they’re concerned about the welfare of the individuals. But they’re really just interested in imposing their own social or religious values […]

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(Almost) Everyone Should Be Allowed to Kill Themselves

A person should have the right to end their own life, so long as they can prove that they are thinking rationally over a prolonged period of several days.

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Life Doesn’t Begin at Conception—Or Even at Birth

The bioethicist believes that life should be divined by cognizance, by sentience, and by the ability to interact with the world. Infants who can’t do that should have their lives […]

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3 min

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Big Think Interview With Jacob Appel

A conversation with the bioethicist.

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18 min

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Drug Our Drinking Water

Bioethicist Jacob Appel thinks that adding small amounts of lithium to our drinking water could potentially reduce the rate of suicide.

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4 min

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The Best NYC Landmark You’ve Never Heard Of

Becoming a New York sightseeing guide is harder than passing the bar. Having met the challenge, Jacob Appel describes his favorite sight in the city.

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Write About Extraordinary People, and Other Fiction Tips

Don’t write stories about “ordinary people who think in ordinary ways,” and don’t spoon-feed your readers answers to moral dilemmas.

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3 min

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How to Survive 20,000 Rejections

Discouraged writers, take heart! Jacob Appel has been turned down by nearly every publication in existence—and has the records to prove it. So what keeps him plugging away?

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5 min

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Electronic Medical Records: An Open Book?

“A pharmacist in Alaska can look at the records of his daughter’s fiancée in Florida…and there’s no way the system right now can track that down.” What’s the solution?

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3 min

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We Shouldn’t Worry About “Designer Babies”

In vitro babies should be pre-screened for severe birth defects, argues Jacob Appel. If this creates a slippery slope, parents can find “level places on it” (and maybe save money […]

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3 min

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A Legal Market for Fetal Organs?

The bioethicist believes it’s an idea whose time has come. But how could such a market be regulated to prevent abuses?

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4 min

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The Case for Permitting Abortion Until Birth

The bioethicist argues that humans do not gain real sentience until infancy, and that even mothers who commit infanticide should be treated far more gently than other murderers.

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4 min

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How Doctors Should View Death

Is euthanasia, or physician-assisted suicide, ever justified? And when do vegetative states become inseparable from death?

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5 min

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Keeping Politics out of the Hospital

How bioethicists can steer clear of political tensions on the job, and why past friction between bioethicists and doctors is quickly disappearing.

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What Is Bioethics?

The discipline is less than 30 years old, but its practitioners have become a fixture in hospitals, and its inquiries have “brought morality back into the field of philosophy.”

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3 min

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Big Think Interview With Jacob Appel

A conversation with the bioethicist and fiction writer.

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31 min

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