Complete Biography

Eric Cassell has been a practicing internist for over forty years. He retired from his busy private practice in 1998 and presently sees patients in consultation. He is an attending physician at The New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and a Clinical Professor of Public Health at Weil Medical College of Cornell University. He also teaches Pain Fellows at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Cassell is a frequent guest lecturer and teacher throughout the world speaking about medical education, the care of sick patients, the dying patient, and especially suffering. He is an author whose books and articles about moral problems in medicine, medical practice, the care of chronically ill and dying, and the nature of suffering include:

• The Healer’s Art
• The Place of Humanities in Medicine
• Changing Values in Medicine
• Talking with Patients (2 Volumes)
• The Nature of Suffering (The 2nd Edition will be published in the summer of 2003.)
• Doctoring: The Nature of Primary Care Medicine

Dr. Cassell received his BA from Queens College in 1950 and his MA from Columbia University also in 1950. He received his M.D. from New York University College of Medicine from whom he received the Solomon A. Berson Medical Alumnus Achievement Award in 2000. He was a U.S. Public Health Service Fellow in infectious disease in the Department of Public Health of Cornel University Medical University serving under Dr. Walsh McDermott and Dr. Rene Dubos. In 1961 he began extensive research and writing on the health effects of air pollution well before the subject was of popular interest. He has been on the faculty of New York University School of Medicine and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Dr. Cassell is a Fellow and a member of the Board of Directors of the Hastings Center. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and a Master of the American College of Physicians. From 1997 to 2001 he was a member of the President’s Bioethics Advisory Commission.

Dr. Cassell and his wife split their time between Brooklyn, NY (under the Brooklyn Bridge) and Minisink Hills, Pa. (in the Poconos at Delaware Water Gap). Together they have eight children and two grandchildren. At the “country” place Eric has a large workshop where he does wood working and other projects. Recently as a result of downsizing in Brooklyn, he added a library to the country place and built twenty bookcases to accommodate his extensive library. Presently he is cataloging his thousand-plus books so that he can have ease of reference as he continues to research and write about medicine.