Len Doyal

Len Doyal, FRSA, FRSocMed (10 August 1944 – 10 June 2025) was an American-British medical ethicist and academic who was emeritus professor of medical ethics at Queen Mary, University of London.

Background Doyal was born in Atlanta, Georgia on 10 August 1944. He studied philosophy and sociology at Georgia State University, earning his undergraduate degree (with distinction) in 1966. That same year he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study with Karl Popper at the London School of Economics.

He was married to Lesley Doyal and they had two children and four grandchildren. Doyal lived in both central London and Perugia, Italy. He died on 10 June 2025, at the age of 80.

Early career Doyal worked for over two decades at Middlesex University (then Middlesex Polytechnic), developing and teaching a course on the natural and social sciences, political and moral philosophy, as well as politics and philosophy of technology.

In 1986, he was appointed Principal Lecturer in Philosophy. That same year, he co-authored Empiricism, Explanation and Rationality with Roger Harris, a popular introduction to the philosophy of social sciences.

Medical ethics and law In the 1980s, he became interested in ethics and law applied to medicine and at University College and The Middlesex Hospitals joint medical school he organised and jointly taught on a part-time basis on the subject. The Nuffield Foundation gave him a grant to produce, write and direct a video library and associated teaching materials on informed consent, which was published in 1990. He has advocated that non-voluntary euthanasia should be legal under certain limited circumstances. His position was criticised by Deborah Annetts of Dignity in Dying.

Lecture cancelled because of disruptive protestors In April 2009, a lecture by Doyal and debate in Cork University Hospital were cancelled after protesters took up positions in the lecture theatre. Father Paul Kramer, a Catholic priest, was among the protesters and ordered Doyal to leave Ireland. The police who were present made no attempt to stop the protesters. Doyal had to be escorted out by hospital security guards. The talk had been criticised by Bishop John Buckley, Senator Jim Walsh and Senator John Hanafin, though Senator David Norris accused Senator Walsh of scaremongering. The Health Service Executive said the lecture was cancelled for safety reasons.

Books Empiricism, Explanation and Rationality (with Roger Harris) A Theory of Human Need (with Ian Gough) Informed Consent in Medical Research (with Jeffrey S. Tobias)