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Lori Bruce

Bioethicist, Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, Yale University
Chapter Member: Connecticut SSN
Areas of Expertise:

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About Lori

Bruce's research examines the moral dilemmas of health policy and clinical practice, including ethics of psychedelic medicine, infant abandonment laws, and explicit consent for intimate exams. Themes of Bruce's work include novel methods of community engagement, structured methods of ethical policymaking, and increased transparency and inclusion within health policy. Bruce is in ethics leadership positions within CT hospitals; provides consulting services for the creation of organizational ethics frameworks; directs global bioethics educational programs; and founded and directs Yale's Community Bioethics Forum to amplify the voices and values of community members within health policy.

In the News

Opinion: "Baby Boxes Limit Family Preservation Options for Texans in Crisis," Lori Bruce (with Sophie Schott), The Dallas Morning News, March 29, 2024.
Opinion: "Baby Boxes’ Aren’t a Solution to Roe’s Repeal," Lori Bruce, The Progressive Magazine, March 2, 2023.

Publications

"Extending Trauma-Informed Principles to Hospital System Policy Development" (with Jennifer L. Herbst). The American Journal of Bioethics 22, no. 5 (2022): 65-68.

Integrates trauma informed-principles within the ethics consultation process, shifting the focus from "what is wrong with a patient toward" what happened in the patients life that lead to current circumstances.

"New Findings on Unconsented Intimate Exams Suggest Racial Bias and Gender Parity" (with Ivar R. Hannikainen and Brian D. Earp). The Hastings Report 52, no. 2 (2022): 7-9.

Suggests that unconsented intimate exams (UIEs) are unlikely to be rare, isolated incidents. 

"Promoting Racial Equity in COVID-19 Resource Allocation" (with Ruth Tallman). Medical Ethics 47, no. 4 (2021).

Discusses that due to COVID-19’s strain on health systems across the globe, triage protocols determine how to allocate scarce medical resources with the worthy goal of maximising the number of lives saved. Mentions due to racial biases and long-standing health inequities, the common method of ranking patients based on impersonal numeric representations of their morbidity is associated with disproportionately pronounced racial disparities.

"Unmet Needs, Unwanted Persons: A Call for Expansion of Safe Haven Laws" The Hastings Report 46, no. 5 (2016): 7-8.

Elaborates on legislative strategies for reducing infant abandonment and neonaticide developed in response to a series of sensational cases that occurred in Texas in 1999. Implies the media coverage of the incidence of the crime was increasing, and Texas legislators responded with a law permitting parents to anonymously surrender their newborn at designated locations such as hospitals.