New Directions in Bioethics with Dr. Elizabeth Lanphier

Dr. Elizabeth Lanphier is a faculty member in the Ethics Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and is affiliated with the departments of pediatrics, philosophy, and women, gender, and sexuality studies at the University of Cincinnati. She is a philosopher and clinical ethicist whose work focuses on narrative, feminist, and trauma-informed approaches in bioethics. Dr. Lanphier shares definitions and applications of feminist and narrative approaches to bioethics and discusses her recently published book co-authored with Larry Churchill, Bioethical Responsibilities in Twenty-First Century Crises. This is a collection of essays arguing to expand the scope of Bioethics towards thinking about complex challenges to health and healthcare delivery for individuals, communities, institutions, and the planet. These essays reflect on the ways the field has changed and needs to continue to change in response to the impending climate disaster and the political, social and financial drivers of health. The conversation then shifts to Dr. Lanphier’s work on Trauma Informed Care and its application in clinical ethics. Trauma Informed Care is a framework that recognizes that trauma is common and impactful and uses guiding principals to reduce that impact including promoting physical and emotional safety, fostering trust and transparency, leveling hierarchies, engaging peer support, and attending to bias and exclusion. Dr. Lanphier and her colleagues have a long-term plan to incorporate Trauma Informed principles into clinical ethics consultation including conducting a baseline assessment, creating shared practices and definitions, designing and implementing training, and incorporating in established practice standards such as core competencies. Finally, Dr. Lanphier discusses how she applies her narrative, feminist and trauma-informed lenses to questions like implementation of universal social determinants of health screening in medical care.

Lanphier, E., & Churchill, L. R. (Eds.). (2026). Bioethical Responsibilities in Twenty-First Century Crises. Bloomsbury Publishing: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/bioethical-responsibilities-in-twentyfirst-century-crises-9781978766372/

Lanphier E, Anani UE. Trauma Informed Ethics Consultation. Am J Bioeth. 2022 May;22(5):45-57: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33684027/

Lanphier, E., & Duffee, J. (2025). Trauma-Informed Screening for Structural Drivers of Health. AMA Journal of Ethics, 27(9), E678-E685: https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/trauma-informed-screening-structural-drivers-health/2025-09

Lanphier, E. (2025). Reasoning from faith or fact. In Complex Ethics Consultations (pp. 35–40). Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/complex-ethics-consultations/reasoning-from-faith-or-fact/40525278932A893C2629810D1024BFAF