Dan Wikler

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Daniel I. Wikler (194__- ) is currently Mary B. Saltonstall Professor of Population Ethics and Professor of Ethics and Population Health in the Department of Population and International Health of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. He is a core faculty member in the Harvard Program in Ethics and Health. His current research interests are ethical issues in population and international health, including the allocation of health resources, health research involving human subjects, and ethical dilemmas arising in public health practice, and he teaches several courses each year.

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[edit] Overview

Professor Wikler’s published work addresses many issues in bioethics, including issues in reproduction, transplantation, and end-of-life decision-making. His current interests address bioethical issues arising in a population level and global perspective. His book series, Studies in Philosophy and Health Policy, was published by Cambridge University Press, as was From Chance to Choice: Genetics and Justice, co-authored by Prof. Wikler and three other philosophers: Allen D. Buchanan, Norman Daniels, and Daniel W. Brock.

[edit] Professional Career

Dan Wikler earned Highest Honors in Philosophy at Oberlin College in Ohio, where he received the baccalaureate degree in 1967. He served for two years (1968-1970) as Social Science Analyst in NIMH, the National Institute of Mental Health, in Washington, DC. He completed his doctorate in philosophy at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1976, where from 1972-1975 he was also awarded a Teaching Fellowship in the Department of Philosophy.

University of Wisconsin, Madison At the University of Wisconsin, Madison, he was Professor of Philosophy in the UW-M Department of Philosophy, Professor in the Department of the History of Medicine's Program in Medical Ethics, and Professor in the Medical School of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, serving from 1975-2002.

US Presidential Commission From 1980 to 1981, he served on the President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine in Washington, D.C., as Staff Philosopher for Biomedical and Behavioral Research.

World Health Organization He served as the first Staff Ethicist for the World Health Organization, and remains a consultant to several WHO programs. Prof. Wikler was co-founder and second president of the International Association of Bioethics and has served on the advisory boards of the Asian Bioethics Association and the Pan American Health Organization (AHO) Regional Program in Bioethics.

While at the World Health Organization, he instituted an international collaboration among philosophers and economists on ethical, methodological, and philosophical issues raised by WHO’s work in measurement of the global burden of disease and in developing methods for improving health resource allocation.

[edit] Professional Career at Harvard

Currently, Professor Wikler is co-director (with Dr. Richard A. Cash, also of HSPH) of the Harvard School of Public Health’s Program on Ethical Issues in International Health Research, a program of both empirical and theoretical research on ethical issues in health research, particularly in developing countries. Versions of the course have been taught in over a dozen developing countries, including Mexico, South Africa, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, and UAE. The Program offers fellowships for scholars in developing countries and sponsors an intensive each year for an international clientele.

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