Jacob M. Appel

Jacob M. Appel (born February 21, 1973) is an American author, bioethicist, physician, lawyer and social critic.^[1] 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.^[2] Appel's novel The Man Who Wouldn't Stand Up, won the Dundee International Book Prize in 2012.^[3][4][5]

Education

Appel was born in the Bronx and raised in Scarsdale, New York,^[6] and Branford, Connecticut.^[7] His family is Jewish.^[8] He completed his BA at Brown University with double majors in English and American literature and in history (1995).^[9] He has seven master's degrees from Brown (MA in European history, 1996),^[10] Columbia University (MA in American history, 1998, and MPhil, 2000),^[11] New York University (MFA in creative writing with a focus in fiction, 2000),^{[12][13][14][15]} Albany Medical College, constituent of the Union University of New York (MS in bioethics, 2012), and recently completed his MFA in playwriting from Queens College of the City University of New York (2013)^[16] and MPH from the medical school of Mount Sinai Hospital (2014)^[17][18] Furthermore, he has a JD from Harvard Law School (2003)^[19][20][21] and an MD from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (2009).^[22] He completed his residency at Mount Sinai in New York City and is a practicing psychiatrist there;^[23][24] he is also licensed to practice law in New York and Rhode Island.^[25] He is working on his PhD thesis from Columbia on the history of American medicine and psychiatry (as of May 2012).^[26]

Fiction writer and playwright

Appel is a "prolific"^[27] short story writer. His fiction has been published in two hundred fifteen^[28] literary journals, including Agni,^[29] The Alaska Quarterly Review,^[30] The Gettysburg Review,^[31] The Missouri Review^[32] and StorySouth.^[33] His first story collection, Scouting for the Reaper, won Black Lawrence Press's Hudson Prize in 2012.^[34] Among the other awards he has won for his short stories are those sponsored by The Boston Review (1998)^[35] and New Millennium Writings (2004, 2007, 2008).^[36][37][38] He won the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Award for best short story in 2004^[39] and a Sherwood Anderson Foundation grant in 2005.^[40] His fiction has been short-listed for the O. Henry Prize (2001),^[41] Best American Short Stories (2007,^[42] 2008^[43]), Best American Nonrequired Reading (2006,^[44] 2007^[45]), Best American Mystery Stories (2009)^[46] and the Pushcart Prize (2006,^[47] 2007,^[48] 2011^[49]).

His debut novel, The Man Who Wouldn't Stand Up, won the 2012 Dundee International Book Prize and was published by Cargo in October 2012.^[50][51] It was described as a "A darkly comic satire, full of insight into American culture " by Stephen Fry and “engaging, funny, ingenious, even charming” by Philip Pullman.^[52]

His plays have been performed by companies across the U.S., including the Detroit Repertory Theatre, Heller Theatre, and Epilogue Players.^[53][54]

Appel has taught creative writing at the Gotham Writers' Workshop and New York University.^[55]

Bioethicist

Academic bioethics

As a professional bioethicist, Appel has published in Hastings Center Report,^[56][57][58] The Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics,^[59] Bulletin of the History of Medicine,^[60][61] The Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics,^[62][63] The Journal of Medical Ethics,^{[64][65][66][67]} The Journal of Bioethical Inquiry^[68] and GeneWatch, the journal of the Council for Responsible Genetics.^[69]

Appel is an advocate for the decriminalization of assisted suicide,^[70] raising the possibility that this might be made available to both the terminally ill and those with intractable, long-term mental illness.^[71][72] He has also defended the Groningen Protocol.^[73] He has written in favor of abortion rights and fertility treatment for homosexuals, as well as against electronic medical records, which he sees as poorly secured against hacking.^[74] He has also argued in favor of the legalization of prostitution, polygamy and incest between consenting adults and bestiality when the animal is not forced or harmed.^[75] 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.^[76][77] He generated considerable controversy for endorsing the mandatory use of preimplantation genetic diagnosis as part of the in vitro fertilization process to prevent the implantation of embryos carrying severe genetic defects. Appel has also written in support of an "open border" immigration policy. Among the causes that Appel has embraced is opposition to the forcible feeding of hunger strikers, both in domestic prisons and at Guantanamo Bay.^[78][79]

He has taught medical ethics at New York University,^[80][81] Columbia University,^[82] Mount Sinai School of Medicine^[83][84][85] and Brown University's Alpert Medical School.^[86][87][88]

Commentary

Appel writes for both The Huffington Post and Opposing Views. He has staked out a libertarian position of many bioethical issues, advocating a worldview that he describes as "a culture of liberty."^[89] He has also authored opinion pieces in The New York Times, New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, Albany Times-Union, Tucson Citizen, Detroit Free Press, New Haven Register and The Providence Journal.^{[90][91][92][93][94]} The Best American Essays series named his nonfiction pieces as "notable essays" in the years 2011 and 2012.^[95][96]

Plays

• The Resurrection of Dismas and Gestas (2005)^[97]
• In the Floodplain (2005)
• Arborophilia (2006)
• The Three Belles of Eden (2006)^[98]
• Thirds (2007)^[99]
• The Mistress of Wholesome (2007)
• The Replacement (2008)^[100]
• Woodpecker (2008)
• Causa Mortis (2009)^[101]
• Helen of Sparta (2009)^[102]

Books

• The Man Who Wouldn't Stand Up (Cargo, 2012)^[103][104]

• The Biology of Luck (Elephant Rock, 2013)

• Scouting for the Reaper (Black Lawrence, 2014)

• Phoning Home (University of South Carolina Press, 2014)

• Einstein's Beach House (Pressgang/Butler University, 2014)

• The Magic Laundry (Snake Nation, 2015)

• Miracles and Conundrums of the Secondary Planets (Black Lawrence, 2015)

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Jacob M. Appel

• Appel's Biography at his website