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.

Dan Wikler is the son and third child of the late Abraham and Ada Wikler. He was born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky, where he graduated from Henry Clay High School.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-MadisonAt 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 CommissionFrom 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 OrganizationHe 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.

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 Global Health Research (formerly Program on Ethical Issues in International Health Research, through June 2008), 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.

He serves on numerous Harvard University and other professional committees and advises several student groups, including the Harvard Undergraduate Bioethics Society (HUBS), sponsor in March 2008 of the National Undergraduate Bioethics Conference.

Dr. Wikler writes, lectures, and advises in bioethics and professional ethics, both internationally and in Greater Boston, including at Harvard.