Eric Jonathan Cassell (August 29, 1928 – September 24, 2021) was an American physician and bioethicist.

Eric Jonathan Goldstein was born on August 29, 1928, in New York City.^[1] He and his brother changed their surname to Cassell to render it closer to their grandfather's name, which was changed at Ellis Island.^[1] He received a BS from Queens College, City University of New York, in 1950, an MA from Columbia University, also in 1950, and an MD from New York University School of Medicine in 1954.^[1][2]

Cassell taught at Cornell University Medical College and Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and practiced at French Hospital and New York Hospital.^[3] He was elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine in 1982.^[4]

According to a 2019 critical review of Cassell's work, his views on the nature of suffering were "close to canonical" in the medical community.^[5] Cassell advanced a subjective view of suffering, according to which the condition must be understood by reference to the beliefs and perceptions of the person experiencing it.^[5]

In 2001, Cassell published a study in Annals of Internal Medicine that assessed the decision-making capacity of severely ill adults, finding that their decision-making abilities were similar to those of children under 10. Commenting on his findings, Cassell stated, "I think it's grossly unfair and I actually think it's an abuse of a patient to put someone in a position to make decisions when they don't have the capacity to make them."^[6]

Cassell died on September 24, 2021, in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.^[1]

• Cassell, Eric J. (1976). The Healer's Art: A New Approach to the Doctor-Patient Relationship. Philadelphia: Lippincott. ISBN 0-397-01098-2. OCLC 1958247.^[7]
• Cassell, Eric J. (July 24, 1997). Doctoring: The Nature of Primary Care Medicine. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195113235.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-511323-5.^[8]
• Cassell, Eric J. (April 8, 2004) [1991]. The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Medicine. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195156164.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-515616-4.^[9]
• Cassell, Eric J. (December 5, 2012). The Nature of Healing: The Modern Practice of Medicine. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195369052.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-536905-2.^[10]

• Duffee, Charlotte (September 2020). "What really is the nature of suffering? Three problems with Eric Cassell's concept of distress". Bioethics. 34 (7): 695–702. doi:10.1111/bioe.12748. ISSN 0269-9702. PMID 32627862. S2CID 220367885.