The characters in Glitch continuously grapple with the ethical implications of time travel. Even though the authorities in the novel argue that these ethics are straightforward, Regan, Elliot, and others conclude that they are actually complex, dependent upon context, and impossible to reduce to absolutes. In Glitch, time travel is typically illegal because tampering with the past is considered inherently immoral; the only people who are allowed to time travel are “Glitchers.” These law enforcement agents are trained to capture “Butterflies,” who want to change the past, thereby altering the present and future. Despite the normative legal and moral ideas that Regan and Elliot have been taught at school, they still decide to become Butterflies and change the past to save lives and protect the future. Thus, the novel ultimately suggests that what is legally right does not always reflect what is morally right, and the ethics of time travel are too complicated to encapsulate in a simple, absolute rule.

Authorities such as professors, Regan’s mom, and Officer Salzburg argue that tampering with the past is always immoral because history must be preserved to protect the present. Although this is true in many cases, it isn’t always, which causes the ethics of time travel to become murky. Regan struggles with these ethics from the novel’s beginning because sometimes, Glitchers must ensure that horrific historical events, such as factory fires and the assassination of President Lincoln, still occur, so that the string of resulting events remains intact. She reflects, “It felt ten kinds of wrong to allow something horrendous like an assassination of arguably one of our greatest presidents, but it was all part of the job…to make sure things stayed exactly the way the history books described” (3). Although allowing Lincoln’s death does not seem noble, experts in the novel’s world have theorized that preventing his death would trigger a chain of disastrous events, leading to the dissolution of the United States and, possibly, the victory of the Nazis during World War II. Regan has an easier time stopping Butterflies who seek to inhibit progress or cause destruction, such as those “who believed…that slavery should never have been abolished, or that women shouldn’t have been given the right to vote” (4). Whereas some events in history were clearly good and worth preserving, other events are clearly bad but necessary to keep the existing timeline intact. Mayhem’s attack on the Academy proves to be a wedge in this type of thinking; the actions are not only bad in themselves but can also lead to a catastrophic string of consequences. In this case, Regan and Elliot decide that tampering with the past is justified because “protect[ing] the future of the United States” is their sole purpose in the world (354). As such, they act in accordance with their true morals rather than the law.

In addition to the ethical question of how tampering with the past affects the future of humanity as a whole, Glitch also raises questions about how time-traveling might affect individuals’ health and well-being in the present. Since very few people have the time-traveling gene, those who do have it are forced to attend the Academy and train to be Glitchers, whether they want to or not. Regan questions the morality of forcing people into a specific career simply due to their genetics:

[The students] never asked for this life. None of us had, and it wasn’t the first time I wondered what it would be like to have a life other than this one. To have the freedom to choose my own path based on my strengths instead of being crammed down one that seemed to do nothing but highlight my weaknesses (25).

Indeed, this is a problematic consequence of biological determinism. Regan further questions the ethics of forcing people into time-traveling careers because the equipment used by the older generations damaged their bodies over time, clearly illustrating a potential downside of time travel. This relates to broader ethical questions about forcing individuals to participate in dangerous or harmful practices, such as military conscription, for the greater good. On the other hand, many older characters wish they could still time travel and resent the fact that the law mandated that they have their Glitching gene deactivated, even if it was detrimental to their health. Here, the novel raises questions about personal choice and whether it’s the government’s place to dictate issues of individual healthcare. Although the novel doesn’t offer a definitive answer to this question, it does suggest that the ethics of time travel are extremely complex and might best be handled on a case-by-case basis rather than in absolutes.