Genome Engineering, Chemical Exposure, and the Germline: An Ethical Synthesis

Concerns about the human germline in the context of genome editing have been at the forefront of contemporary bioethics, with the clear recognition that the heritability associated with such intervention merits special moral consideration. In contrast, the question of moral responsibility for modifications of the germline genome that result from anthropogenic environmental toxicants has received little attention. Yet, whether the impact of human technological activity on enduring shifts in human heredity occurs via purposeful genetic modification or nondirected changes that undermine genome stability, the result is irreversible genetic change in future generations. This article argues that the robust ethical reflection developed by the bioethics community to address human heritable genome editing can be used as a resource to address understudied questions of moral responsibility for anthropogenic insults to the germline. Drawing on this bioethics work, the article outlines a future-oriented ethical framework for germline responsibility in a time of widespread concern about industrial chemicals and human futures.