The ethics councils of three major European nations—France, Germany, and the UK—jointly authored this statement on the ethics of human germline genome editing. The statement identifies momentum toward allowing the clinical use of heritable genome editing but argues that this use would require “a level of public ethical reflection that is not yet met by current initiatives.” Accordingly, the three ethics bodies call for broad societal debate and deliberation and argue that this deliberation must focus more on ethical questions and principles.