Griffin Trotter, MD, PhD
In addition to his faculty appointment in the Center for Health Care Ethics, Griffin Trotter has a secondary appointment in the Department of Surgery, Emergency Medical Division. He is a board certified emergency physician, and retired after 15 years of practice. He received his PhD in philosophy in 1995 from Vanderbilt University and his MD in 1985 from Saint Louis University.
Dr. Trotter is CHCE Director of Clinical Consultation and co-Director of Plenary Mentoring for Graduate Students in Health Care Ethics. He teaches several courses in the PhD program in Health Care Ethics, including "Methods in Philosophical Ethics" (G601), "Introduction to Medicine for Ethicists" (G611), and "Ethics in Health Care Reform" (G634). He also directs the ethics course for first year medical students and the public health ethics course for the MPH program at the SLU School of Pubic Health.
His research focuses on clinical ethics, health policy reform, and on the relevance of American pragmatism to bioethics. Dr. Trotter is the author of The Loyal Physician (Vanderbilt University Press, 1997) On Royce (Wadsworth, 2001), and The Ethics of Coercion in Mass Casualty Medicine (Johns Hopkins University, 2007), as well as over 60 essays and articles in bioethics and emergency medicine.
Selected Published Articles (Since 2000)
"Interpreting Scientific Data Ethically: A Frontier for Research Ethics." In Research Ethics, Ana Iltis (Ed). Routledge, New York: 2006.
"Bioethics, Christian Charity and the View from No Place." Christian Bioethics, 11 (December, 2005): 317-331.
"Of Lotteries Lost and Partnerships Forged: The Perils and Promises of Patient Ethics." Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 14 (Spring, 2005): 131-140. (Part of a theme issue edited by Dr. Trotter.)
"Is There a Distinctive American Version of the Natural Law?" In The Death of Metaphysics; The Death of Culture: Epistemology, Metaphysics, and Morality, Mark Cherry (Ed). Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Spring, 2005.
"What Jurisdiction, Whose Justice? A Response to Eckenwiler." Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 14 (Summer, 2005): 316-321.
"Pragmatism and Ethical Expertise." In Ethics Expertise: History, Contemporary Perspectives, and Applications, Lisa A. Rasmussen (Ed). Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Spring, 2005.
"Why Bioethics is Ill Equiped to Contribute to the Debate About Prolonging Lifespans." HEC Forum, 16 (September, 2004): 197-213. (Part of a theme issue edited by Dr. Trotter.)
"Loyalty in the Trenches: Practical Teleology for Office Clinicians Responding to Terrorism." Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 29 (August 2004): 389-416.
"Chemical Terrorism and the Ethics of Decontamination." Journal of Clinical Ethics 15 (Summer, 2004): 149-160.
"Pragmatic Bioethics and the Big Fat Moral Community." Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 28 (October, 2003): 655-671.
"Buffalo Eyes: A Take on the Global HIV Epidemic." Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 12 (Fall, 2003): 434-443.
"Holding Civic Medicine Accountable: Will Morreim’s Liability Schemes Work in a Disaster?" Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 28 (June, 2003): 339-357.
"Outside Outpatient Ethics: Is it Ethical for Physicians to Serve Ringside?" Journal of Clinical Ethics 13 (Winter, 2002): 367-374.
"Emergency Medicine, Terrorism and Universal Access to Healthcare: A Potent Mixture for Erstwhile Knights-Errant" In: In the Wake of Terror: Medicine and Morality in a Time of Crisis, ed. Jonathan Moreno, 133-146. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2003.
"Of Terrorism and Healthcare: Jolting the Old Habits" [Column: Bioethics and Defense], Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 11 (Fall, 2002): 411-414.
"Virtue, Foible and Practice: Medicine’s Arduous Moral Triad." Bioethics Forum 18 (Fall 2002): 30-36.
"Why were the Benefits of tPA Exaggerated? The Role of Interpretation Bias." Western Journal of Medicine 176 (May 2002): 194-197.
"Moral Consensus in Bioethics: Illusive or Just Elusive?" (Guest Editorial) Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 11 (Winter 2002): 1-3.
"Bioethics and Healthcare Reform: A Whig Critique of Weak Consensus" Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 11 (Winter 2002): 37-51.
"Pragmatism, Bioethics and the Grand American Social Experiment." American Journal of Bioethics 1 (Fall 2001): In Focus article at http://bioethics.net.
"Assisted Suicide and the Duty to Die." Journal of Clinical Ethics 11 (Fall 2000): 260-271.
"Culture, Ritual and Errors of Repudiation: Some Implications for the Assessment of Alternative Medical Traditions." Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine 6 (July 2000): 62-68.
Selected National and Regional Presentations (Since 2000)
Sixteenth Annual Cox Health Decisions in Trauma Conference. Dr. Trotter's paper: "Surgical Futility." Springfield, Missouri. May 19, 2006.
Sixth Annual Donald G. Wester Conference: "Josiah Royce on Ethics and Community." Dr. Trotter's paper: "Royce's State of Nature." Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. April 8, 2006.
Fourth Annual Illinois Bioterrorism Summit: "Staying Strong and Vigilant in the Heartland." Dr. Trotter's paper: "Disaster Myths" (Plenary Session). July 19, 2005. Chicago, Illinois
Royce Society, First Annual Conference. Dr. Trotter's paper: "Royce as Bioethicist" (Plenary Session). April 9, 2005. Vanderbilt University. Nashville, Tennessee.
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Conference: "Readying Healthcare Systems Today for a Response Tomorrow." Dr. Trotter's paper: "Hospitals, Disasters and Ethics: Some Unhelpful Myths" (Plenary Session). December 9, 2004. Arlington, Virginia.
Association for Politics and the Life Sciences (APLS), 24th Annual Meeting. Dr. Trotter's paper: "Coercion in Mass Casualty Medicine." September 4, 2004. Chicago, Illinois.
St. Edwards University Annual Natural Law Conference: "Can the Natural Law Guide Public Morality? Critically Reassessing the Metaphysical and Epistemological Dimensions of the Natural Law." Dr. Trotter's paper: "Is there a Distinctive American Version of Natural Law?" November 13, 2004. Austin, Texas.
Office for Human Research Protections, Friends Research Institute, and University of California, San Francisco jointly sponsored conference entitled: "Today's Research, Tomorrow's Issues." Dr. Trotter's paper: "Do Victims of Terrorism Need Special Research Protections?" September 24, 2003. San Francisco, California.
American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, 5th Annual Meeting. "Panel: Bioethics and Security: How the War on Terrorism will Affect Healthcare Values." Panel Session Moderator and Presenter (Dr. Trotter's paper: "Emergency Preparedness"). Other presenters: Jonathan Moreno, Ronald Bayer, Edmund Howe. October 24, 2002. Baltimore, Maryland.
Friends Research Institute National Defense and Human Research Protections Conference. Dr. Trotter's paper: "Pluralism and the Common Good: What they Mean in a Crisis." October 22, 2002. Washington, D.C.
Fifth Annual International Bioethics Retreat. "Bioethics and Chemical Terrorism: The Problem of Decontamination." June 9, 2002. Almagro, Spain.
American Philosophical Association, Midwestern Division. Speaker for Panel Session on Community as Healing, by Micah Hester (sponsored by the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy). April 26, 2002. Chicago, Illinois.
American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, 4th Annual Meeting. "Panel: Bioethics, Consensus and Health Care Policy." Panel Session Moderator. With H. Tristram Engelhardt, Mark G. Kuczewski, Jonathan D. Moreno and Laurie Zoloth. October 26, 2001. Nashville, Tennessee.
Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, 10th Annual Meeting. "On Dong More or Doing Less: The Perennial Challenge of Clinical Ethics." Invited Paper for Mini-conference, "Practical Ethics in the Professions and the Workplace." March 4, 2001. Cincinnati, Ohio.
American Public Health Association 128th Annual Meeting, "Reprocessing Single-Use Devices: The Ethics of Regulation." November 14, 2000. Boston, Massachusetts.
Congressional Testimony
United States House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation (Commerce). Subject: Reuse of Single-use Medical Devices. February 10, 2000. Rayburn House, Washington D.C.
Editorial & Committee Work
Member, National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) Scientific Committees SC-13 and SC-15 advising the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on radiation safety issues related to space travel.
Program Committee co-Chair (with Felicia Cohn). 7th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities, Fall 2004.
Member, Bioterrorism Review Committee, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
Ethics Program Advisory Committee. Eastern Division, American Philosophical Association. Appointed Spring 2001 for three-year term.
Column Editor: “Bioethics and Defense” for Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics.
Editorial Board member for Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, HEC Forum, American Journal of Disaster Medicine, and Christian Bioethics.
Editorial Board Member for Philosophical Studies in Contemporary Culture series, published by Kluwer Academic Publishers and edited by H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr., Kevin Wm. Wildes, and Lisa M. Rasmussen.
Editorial Advisory Board Member for Practicing Bioethics Series, published by Rowman and Littlefield and edited by Mark Kuczewski.
Department of Health Care Ethics
Mailing Address: Department of Health Care Ethics
221 North Grand Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63103-2006
Campus address: O'Brien Hall, Frost Campus
Telephone: (314) 977-6661
Fax: (314) 977-5150
