Dan Wikler
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 new Harvard Program in Ethics and Health and participates in faculty research and curriculum development groups on such issues as disparities in health status, clinical and institutional ethics, and the impact of corruption and fraud on public 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.
Overview
Professor Wikler’s published work addresses many issues in bioethics, including issues in reproduction, transplantation, and end-of-life decision-making in addition to population and international health.. 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 Buchanan, Norman Daniels, and Daniel W. Brock.
Liberal Eugenics (or new eugenics) is the study and non-coercive use of reproductive and genetic technologies to enhance human beings, and a key goal of liberal eugenics is to reduce the role of chance in reproduction.
Professional Career
Grew up in … Oberlin College – BA Philosophy (High Honors, 1967) UCLA - PhD, Philosophy (1976)
World Health Organization
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.
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 Regional Program in Bioethics.
Professional Career at Harvard
Currently, Professor Wikler is co-director 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 ten 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.
He also co-directs a collaborative project with the World Health Organization and the PRC Ministry of Health to join Chinese colleagues, including former Program fellows, in an effort to enhance the China’s capacity for ethical review of health research. Prof. Wikler is a frequent lecturer on ethics and health in the PRC, Hong Kong, Thailand, and developing nations and holds honorary appointments at two Beijing research institutions.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
1. Wikler, D. Persuasion and Coercion for Health: Ethical Issues in Government Efforts to Change Lifestyles. Milbank Quarterly 56(3):303-333, 1978.
2. Green, M. and Wikler, D. Brain Death and Personal Identity. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 9(2):105-133, Winter 1980.
3. Wikler, D., Brock, D., Caplan, A., DeGeorge, R., Gert, B., and Veatch, R. Contemporary Bioethics in the United States (monograph, in Russian). (Moscow: Znanye, 1990).
4. Wikler, D. "Brain Death: A Durable Consensus?" Bioethics, 7(2/3):239-246, 1993.
5. Wikler, D. "Policy Issues in Donor Insemination." Stanford Law & Policy Review, 6(2):47-56, 1995.
6. Wikler, D. "International Bioethics and Ethical Relativism." Medicine and Philosophy (Beijing) 17(12), 1996, pp.663-667 (in Chinese).
7. Wikler, D. "Bioethics and Social Responsibility." Bioethics, 11(3&4):185-192).
8. Wikler, D., and Marchand, S., "Macroallocation of Health Care Resources". In Singer, P., and Kuhse, H., Companion to Bioethics, 1998.
9. Marchand, S., and Wikler, D. "Class, Health, and Justice." Milbank Quarterly 76(3), 1998, pp. 449-468.
10. Wikler, D. "Eugenic Values". In Science in Context 11 (3-4), 1998, pp. 455-470.
11. Buchanan, A., Brock, D., Daniels, N., Wikler D., From Chance to Choice: Genes and Justice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2000.
12. Wikler, D. “Social and Personal Responsibility for Health” Ethics and International Affairs, 16(2), 2002
13. Brock, D. and Wikler D., Ethical Issues in Resource Allocation and New Product Development. In Dean Jamison et al, Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries, Second edition, Oxford UP 2006
14. Sofaer N., Jafarey A., Zhang X., Lei R., and Wikler D. “Compensation and coercion: why disputes over paying subjects in health research seem intractable and how they might be resolved.” Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal (12, suppl.1), 2006
Professional Memberships
1990-1998 Member, National Academy of Social Insurance 1992 Member, Committee on Social and Ethical Impact of Advances in Biomedicine, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences 1993-1995 Vice-President, International Association of Bioethics 1993-1995 Executive Board, American Association of Bioethics 1994-1995 President, American Association of Bioethics 1995-1997 President, International Association of Bioethics
Honors
- 1967 High Honors in Philosophy, Oberlin College
- 1973 Faculty Prize for Distinguished Teaching (University of California at Los Angeles)
- 1975-1980 Career Development Award (Kennedy Scholar in Medical Ethics), Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation
- 1986-1987 Fellow, American Council of Learned Societies and Ford Foundation
- 1986- Fellow (elected), The Hastings Center, Briafcliff Manor, New York
- 1994-1995 Fellow, Program in Ethics and the Professions, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
- 1997 Honorary Fellow, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
- 1997-1998 Mid-Career WARF Award (University if Wisconsin)
- 1999-2000 Leverhulme Fellowship (United Kingdom)
References
- With Norma Wikler (sister, 1942-2002) : ??? - articles about emerging ethical issues in the new medical technologies.
- With wife, Sarah Marchand: ??? - book
- Studies in Philosophy and Health Policy (book series published by Cambridge University Press)
- Buchanan, Allen; Brock, Dan W.; Daniels, Norman; Wikler, Daniel (2000). From Chance to Choice: Genetics and Justice. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-66977-4.