In his left-libertarian theory of justice Hillel Steiner introduces the idea of
conceiving our germ-line genetic information (GLGI) as a natural resource as a
means to achieving luck-egalitarian equality. This idea is very interesting in and of
itself. But it also has the potential of turning Steiner’s theory into a particularly
powerful version of left-libertarianism, or so I argue in the first part of this paper. In
the second part I critically examine this idea. I show why, in contrast to what Steiner
claims, this idea requires us to evaluate not only the pieces of GLGI that we have
used, but rather all the pieces of GLGI that our bodies deliver throughout our lives.
Then I argue that besides the immense technical difficulties involved in meeting this
requirement, which we may overcome in the future, there is also a substantive
reason why we cannot meet this requirement. The relevant value of any given piece
of GLGI depends on the way it would interact with another piece of GLGI of the
opposite sex in a reproductive process. But there is no way of determining which
pieces of GLGI should be assigned to each other for the purpose of this evaluation.

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• Germ-Line Genetic Information as a Natural Resource as a Means to Achieving Luck-Egalitarian Equality: Some Difficulties