Ellen Clayton

Media Appearances

• College students may need power of attorney for healthcare decisions

  Ellen Wright Clayton, a Vanderbilt University law and pediatrics professor, is advising students to sign a legal document to allow their parents, or someone they trust, to have a say in their medical care during an emergency. “Most teenagers don’t do this. I mean, why would they be thinking that they could get hurt or really critically ill? But if they think about this, and if they decide they want to do this, there’s a form available for them on the web they can fill out and get witnessed, and this it is taken care of,” Clayton said.

  September 14th, 2022

• Navigating birth control in Tennessee’s post-Roe world

  In the wake of the Roe v. Wade decision, a lot of people were left wondering: What does this mean for access to birth control and emergency contraception? We invited a panel of medical and legal experts to help break it down for us. Check out the highlights below to hear questions answered by Ashley Coffield, the CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi; Dr. Kimberly Looney, an OBGYN; and Ellen Clayton, a Vanderbilt law professor.

  August 31st, 2022

• Their DNA Hides a Warning, but They Don’t Want to Know What It Says

  But Dr. Ellen Clayton, professor of law and genetics at Vanderbilt, worries about the true impact of returning genetic findings to research participants. She cautioned that when researchers call a participant to say they’ve found a variant, “you are getting information that is not standard of care in medicine.” And, she added, it’s not clear that there will be any outcome other than worrying people.

  January 21st, 2022

• Opinion | The Dangerous Legal Illusion of ‘Parental Rights’

  Mask mandates by schools have quickly become one of the most politically charged aspects of the pandemic. At least six states in the South and Southwest have banned or undercut school mask mandates. Incensed anti-mask parents are speaking out at school board meetings and public protests. On the first day of school in Amador County, Calif., one parent became so irate when he saw his daughter walking out of school in a mask that he began arguing with the principal and ended up in a bloody fight with a teacher.

  September 3rd, 2021

• Tennessee under federal investigation for Gov. Lee’s mask ‘opt out’ order

  “Schools, in fact, have a real obligation to keep children safe,” said Ellen Wright Clayton, a Vanderbilt professor of pediatrics, law and health policy.

  August 31st, 2021

• Mask debate moves from school boards to courtrooms

  “This idea of parental freedom to decide what’s best for their child is not unlimited. It has never been unlimited in our system,” said Ellen Clayton, a pediatrician and law professor at Vanderbilt Law School in Nashville, Tennessee.

  August 28th, 2021

• The South is leading the fight against Roe v. Wade. Texas' new abortion law could speed up the legal battles

  "It's really clear that this is not about helping women make good decisions about what to do," said Ellen Clayton, a Vanderbilt University professor of law and health policy. "This is about getting in the way of their decision about what to do."

  September 12th, 2021

• DNA Data Shared in Ways Patients May Find Surprising

  “The data about them might not be as readily available for research as it might be otherwise,” said Vanderbilt University Professor Dr. Ellen Wright Clayton, who studies genetic-research ethics. “We have to look seriously about whether the yield is as high as they hope it is.”

  August 12th, 2019

• Would You Want a Computer to Judge Your Risk of H.I.V. Infection?

  Clearly, doctors should not spring such a result on patients, said Dr. Ellen Wright Clayton, a professor of health policy at Vanderbilt University. Instead, she said, they should ask patients first if they want their records reviewed by the software.

  July 30th, 2019

• The US Urgently Needs New Genetic Privacy Laws

  To close this loophole, US policymakers could reclassify DNA as a piece of personally identifying information in its own right. But Ellen Wright Clayton, cofounder of the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt and one of the leaders of LawSeq, was quick to point out that it won’t stop people from putting their personal genetic records on the internet. “It’s the greatest threat to privacy there is right now,” she said. It’s not enough to opt out of genetic testing yourself, because of the way DNA ties families together across geographies and generations. “The law has nothing to say about whether I can prevent my sisters or cousins or my kids from putting their genomic sequence out there.”

  May 1st, 2019