On August 13, AI-HSS invited renowned American ethicist Professor Daniel Wikler, the Mary B. Saltonstall Professor of Population Ethics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a faculty member in the Department of Global Health and Population, to deliver a lecture titled “Population-level Bioethics: 35 Years of Contributions to the Public’s Health”. Professor Lei Ruipeng served as the moderator.

Professor Lei warmly welcomed and sincerely thanked Professor Wikler for coming to UESTC to deliver the academic lecture. She introduced Professor Wikler’s research background and the theme of the forum to the audience.

Professor Wikler traced the 35-year contributions of population-level bioethics to public health, systematically revealing how this emerging discipline has fundamentally transformed the logic of global health policy-making. He pointed out that while traditional bioethics focuses on the individual when doctors face patients, society needs an ethical framework with a “bird’s-eye view” when making decisions on vaccine distribution or healthcare coverage—this is the revolutionary breakthrough of population-level bioethics and its core value in reshaping equitable decision-making in global health.

During the Q&A session, faculty and students actively participated, engaging in lively discussions on topics such as global health and public health. Professor Wikler patiently answered questions and encouraged students to delve deeper into the field of population-level bioethics. More than twenty faculty members and students from UESTC and Chengdu Second People’s Hospital attended the forum, actively engaging in discussions with Professor Wikler in a vibrant atmosphere.

This forum focused on the 35-year development and future prospects of population-level bioethics, systematically tracing the paradigm shift from traditional clinical ethics to public health decision-making ethics, and laying a critical path for addressing the challenges of global health in the 21st century.