Featured Writings & Publications

The future of medicine lies in nurturing our uniquely human skills

A young person's guide to law and justice (with Ronald Sokol)

How saying 'deez nuts' can ruin your life

Parenting tricks from a lawyer

How to avoid bad decisions that ruin your career

How students cheat

A beginner's guide to finding a good nanny

The risk of lowball offers in personal injury cases

Osler's valediction: how might physicians contribute to the effort to postpone human extinction?

Universities cheat students out of fair compensation

Can I treat an acquaintance?

The academic integrity scammers are getting more threatening

Do doctors need to be told to be kind?

In praise of civility among clinicians

Wrongly accused of using AI: Emily's story

Should doctors apologise to patients?

Comment on the junior doctors' strike

The power of doctors

Developing an honesty test for doctors

How should universities handle cases of blackmail by essay mills?

Our universities have a cheating problem - it's time to bin online exams

An ethicist's view on the Archie Battersbee case: a bad situation made worse

Should doctors be held to higher moral standards than others?

The handling of cheating cases is in urgent need of reform

A cautionary tale for potentially dishonest doctors

Achieving depth in written reflections

Guest post: the ethics of Wimbledon's ban on Russian players

Law or medicine? A lawyer's tips on how to choose (for students)

When is the best time to teach medical ethics?

Five common objections to mandatory vaccination for healthcare workers: a medical ethicist's view

Why mandatory vaccination for healthcare workers should not be scrapped

What does 'natural justice' mean at university disciplinary hearings?

Why do people fear lawyers?

Covid-19 vaccination should be mandatory for healthcare workers

Medical Defence Union Podcast on Reflection

Universities and plagiarism: who copied who?

Students accused of academic misconduct need better support

Surgical malpractice - the barrister's perspective

The ethically astute neurosurgeon

Sir William Osler and Sir Henry Newbolt: Admiral Death and Strains of Aequinimitas

Book Review: Tough Choices

Remediating dishonesty: perspectives of a doctor and ethicist

Is compulsory vaccination of care workers really ethical?

Universities must pay the legal costs of exposing their mistakes (with Bradley Talbot)

The university justice system is in disarray (with Joshua Ellis)

The NHS is not at risk of being overwhelmed - it already is

Daniel Sokol on William Osler's legacy and medical ethics

New guidance from the GMC - what constitutes meaningful dialogue?

Injustice in chess and life

A wake-up call for clinical ethics committees

How should surgeons obtain consent during the covid-19 pandemic?

Letter to a young bioethicist

Why honesty matters in medicine

Developing an ICU Triage Protocol for COVID-19

Can non-specialty doctors on COVID wards still be sued?

An interview with Dr Daniel Sokol on the COVID-19 ICU Triage Protocol

Where are the ICU triage protocols?

ICU Triage Protocol: decision making for intensive care triage in COVID-19 emergency

(6 April 2020)
This document is available in Spanish and French (click on the titles below).
Toma de decisiones en materia de triage en Cuidados Intensivos en la emergencia del COVID-19

Aide à la prise de décision pour le triage en unité de soins intensifs dans le cadre des urgences COVID-19

With thanks to the many doctors, lawyers and ethicists who have given their valuable feedback on the document.

Should we give priority care to healthcare workers in the covid-19 pandemic? (with Benjamin Gray)

The life and death decisions of covid-19

Ethics in these pandemic times may require us to endure sacrifices on our personal freedom or comfort

Challenging conversations with clients

The ABC of Medical Confidentiality

Religion and spirituality in medicine: friend or foe?

William Osler's lasting influence on medical ethics

Dealing fairly with racist patients

The drip, drip, drip of the profit motive

Ask your patient: what is most important to you, and why?

Assisted dying is compatible with the Hippocratic Oath

The ethics of emergency bedside medicine

Delaying decisions on student appeals unjustly prolongs distress

My legal life

How I got into - and out of - academia

Tough choices and medical ethics

Is doctor-patient confidentiality dying a slow death?

Students are being let down by academic misconduct tribunals

The top 5 ethical issues in medicine

What does a medical ethicist-barrister do?

Reflections on Bawa-Garba - a symbol of the medical profession's discontent

Gross negligence manslaughter in health care

Doctors shouldn't reveal so much

What grade do you get if you pay £257 for an essay?

Alfie Evans and guerrilla warfare

Patience for patients

A database of cases with valuable lessons for clinicians

Knocking out written reflections

Is being a doctor 'just a job'?

Contract cheating and essay mills: how much proof do you need?

Lessons from the front line

Charlie Gard and the ethics commentator

Charlie Gard and his clinical ethicist

The Charlie Gard case - an ethicist in the courtroom

Listening to patients is not enough

Should healthcare professionals breach confidentiality when a patient is unfit to drive?

The ethics of the on-call rota

Teaching medical ethics: useful or useless?

Who will operate on you?

Preparing for when things go wrong

Medicine's solemn moments

Embracing the ethically complicated patient

The messiness of medicine

Doctors in danger

Cautionary tales about DNACPR

Doing the right thing

Is it time for medical ethics experts in lack of consent cases?

The case of Chelsea’s Dr Eva Carneiro

The moral imperative for bioethics

Let’s raise a glass to the ordinary sensible patient

Once a month or raising the status of medical ethics

Update on the UK law on consent

How to treat a Piraha: medical ethics and cultural difference

Don’t forget the relatives

Ebola: when healthcare workers’ duty to treat is trumped

Defending the sophisticated consent attack

Lessons from the Ashya King case (with Aidan O’Brien)

Renewing the call for clinical ethicists

Ebola, ethics and the WHO’s decision

Resolving the ethics of the Ebola dilemma

Moral judgement in medical ethics

The exam scam

Let’s stop consenting patients

Beware the lies of patients,

The surgeon’s mark

When law and ethics diverge: the ethics of intimate body searches

Best interests and futility under the judicial microscope

“First do no harm” revisited

Students deserve a fair hearing from universities

The judge as medical ethicist

How magic can help teach students about medical ethics

Waking up to the effects of fatigue in doctors

Patients we don’t like

Seven ways to hone your ethics skills

The ethical gift box: suggestions for improving the ethical conduct of doctors

Surgical Ethics

“The patient would have died anyway”

How good a doctor do you need to be?

Law, ethics and the duty of care

Is bioethics a bully?

A passion for accuracy

How to be a cool headed clinician

The hardest thing: admitting error

No laughing matter

Matters of life and death and quality of life

How can I avoid being sued?

Boxing, mixed martial arts, and other risky sports: is the BMA confused?

Ethical dilemmas in the acute setting: a framework for clinicians

Bariatric surgery and justice in an imperfect world

The medical ethics of the battlefield

The Ethics of Disaster Medicine

Crouching tiger, hidden surgeon

The lawyer’s brief on ethics

Make the care of your patient your first concern

When is restraint appropriate?

How to think like an ethicist

What to tell junior doctors about ethics

The moment of truth

When doctors deceive each other?

What is society’s problem with older mothers?

Searching for medical Rumpoles

Wonder in Medicine

The unpalatable truth about ethics committees

Consultation activities of clinical ethics committees in the United Kingdom: an empirical study and wake-up call

Hippocrates, Michael Jackson and Medical Ethics

Informed consent is more than just a patient’s signature

Lives on the line? Ethics and practicalities of duty of care in pandemics and disasters

General practitioners face ethico-legal problems too!

If swine flu bites, who gets care?

Raising the ethical standards in neurosurgery

Who wants to be the flu GP?

Who wants to be the flu doctor?

The slipperiness of futility

Medical classics

Balancing protection and respect in paediatrics

Just do as you’re told

The death of DNR

Success from surgical checklists breeds idea for ethical checks

Good medicine, human rights and the rights of doctors

The value of hospital chaplains

Sweetening the scent: commentary on ‘what principlism misses’

Should medical schools have a say in how medical students dress?

Rethinking ward rounds

Do we need a concept of intraoperative complication?

Secrets and lies

The ethics of surgical complications

The new kid on the ward round

When can doctors stay away?

But you’re not a doctor!

Just having a laugh

Paving the way for assisted suicide

Should we amputate medical history?

Heroic treatment: reflections on harm

A guide to the Hippocratic Oath

The harms of medicoplasty

Ethics and epidemics

Argus and the Cyclops in the clinic

Medicine as performance; what can magicians teach doctors?

Clinical ethics comes of age

The minefield of medical morals

Clarifying best interests

“What does the law say?”

The ‘Four Quadrants’ approach to clinical ethics case analysis

The essence of medicine: an ethicist in the neurology department

Tricky exam questions; examination ethics for students

A crisis of confidence

The dilemma of authorship

The ethical junior: a typology of ethical issues faced by house officers

What is a surgical complication?

Getting a taste of their own medicine

How far would you go?

A perforated education

William Osler and the jubjub of ethics

Letter to a new medical student

Aequanimitas

Katie’s hysterectomy

Ethicist on the ward round

No patient is an island

It’s tough at the sharp end of medicine

Indian patients suffer in silence

The ethics of reality TV

Can deceiving patients be morally acceptable?

Inside the mind of the doctor

What would you do doctor?

What makes a good death?

Confidentiality and telephone consultations

The right way to argue

Playing mind games

The changing nature of medicine

Life and death in the neonatal clinic

Time to get streetwise

An inconvenient truth; how poor handwriting remains a problem in medical practice

Unveiling the Oxbridge interview

The Irwin video: would you watch it?

Can doctors ever abandon their post?

Virulent epidemics and scope of healthcare workers’ duty of care

The need for a father? An ethical viewpoint

Ethics in practice: a family’s request for deception (letter to the editor)

The trick of solving boredom on wards

A magical education

The ‘Mount Everest’ dilemma

The ethics of assisted suicide

What if: the results

What if…

A case of dubious consent

What is false hope?

Protecting confidentiality in telephone consultations in General Practice

Baby MB – a medical ethicist’s view

Physician wash thy hands

Truth-telling and deception in the doctor-patient relationship: a case analysis

My colleague’s incompetent – what shall I do?

Dissecting ‘Deception'

Doctors’ first duty: professional or personal?

Get inside your doctor’s head

Calling a spade a spade: doctors, student doctors and medical students

Life is like a tooth; Teaching medical humanities through literature

Meeting the ethical needs of doctors

The doctor’s ethical dilemma

The moral of Santa’s story

How to be a good medical student

The not-so-sweet science: the role of the medical profession in boxing

The double-edged sword of trust in medicine

The use of ethics in the EFL classroom

Brought to heal or heel?

Danger: white coats

Some ethical issues to think about Rapid Response to paper on SARS

Medical Ethics: Truth is not always the best medicine

The ethics of face transplants

The silence of the healers at Abu Ghraib

Reflecting on our ‘yuk’

In medicine, ’yuk’ is not a useful guide

Is medical ethics malodorous?

How (not) to be a good patient

Take one Tolstoy with each meal

Can lies be good medicine?

To live and let die,

Trust me I’m a doctor

How to father a child when dead

The proliferation of cheerfulness

The duty to care and severe infectious disease

From anonymity to notoriety: a history of Ebola Haemorrhagic Fever