Epigenetics: Biological, Medical, Social, and Ethical Challenges

Epigenetics, a relatively young discipline in science, is expected to grow steadily and add a fund of knowledge to the life sciences in the future. Regarding the fields of biology and medicine, theoretical questions about epigenetics concern its status in the nexus between nucleotide sequence and gene regulation. Uncertainties for the social sciences relate to the absence of knowledge and the absence of abilities as sociological categories. Ethical problems particularly pertain to the topics of communication about scientific knowledge and about risk as well as to intergenerational justice, reproduction, and the responsibilities of governments and administrations in society. At the moment, a focus of ethical reflection is laid on the education of the public. Information in the media should be adapted to the knowledge that has already been achieved in the sciences. For this purpose, recommendations by learned societies and scholarly organizations can provide standards for orientation.