2023 Health Law Scholars Lauren Roth, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center; Tomar Pierson-Brown, University of Pittsburgh School of Law; Britney Wilson, New York Law School; and Anjali Deshmukh, Georgia State College of Law
In September of this year, Associate Professor of Law and Civil Rights and Disability Justice Clinic Director Britney Wilson delivered a presentation on her paper-in-progress, “Predisposed: Race, Disability, and Death Investigations,” at the 22nd Annual Health Law Scholars Workshop. Hosted by the American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics and the Saint Louis University Law School Center for Health Law Studies, the weekend focused on health law and bioethics scholarship.
Saint Louis University School of Law Professor and Scholar in Residence Sidney D. Watson wrote to Dean and President Anthony W. Crowell to sing Professor Wilson’s praises. Professor Wilson’s work was “enthusiastically received,” Professor Watson wrote.
“Professor Wilson’s article uses news reports, autopsy findings, litigation filings, and personal interviews to explore how physicians, as part of the death investigation system, have used purported pre-existing conditions and disability to excuse police killings of Black people and state inaction that puts Black and other people of color at heightened risk during natural disasters,” she wrote.
“The article makes a compelling case that the racial and disability discrimination previously documented in patient care also infects medicine’s role in the death investigation system,” she went on. “This is pathbreaking work.”
Dean of Faculty William P. LaPiana was equally invigorated by Professor Wilson’s work. “Professor Wilson’s work is opening completely new perspectives on the way the American legal system investigates death,” he says. “Her creative use of a wide range of sources is laying the foundation for transformational scholarship.”
New York Law School Professor Britney Wilson speaking at the 22nd Annual Health Law Scholars Workshop.