# clone sex **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 5, 2002, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clone-sex/102091 "2002-04-05T23:28:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![transmothra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/47e85d/32.png) [@transmothra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/transmothra)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2002, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clone-sex/102091/1 "2002-04-05T23:28:00Z")
i’ve been asking this to my friends for about two years now, in hopes of finding a culturally “accepted” answer. don’t pretend like you haven’t considered the notion, either. **if you have sex with your own clone, is it incest, or just masturbation???** discuss. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2002, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clone-sex/102091/2 "2002-04-05T23:29:41Z")
We have discussed this before. ---
**Author:** ![WillGolfForFood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/82dd89/32.png) [@WillGolfForFood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillGolfForFood)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clone-sex/102091/3 "2002-04-06T01:46:44Z")
> [@](#): > > don’t pretend like you haven’t considered the notion, either. I realize that this is going to be difficult to believe, but until now I’d never even considered the notion of having my own clone in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clone-sex/102091/4 "2002-04-06T01:55:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by transmothra \* > \*\*i’ve been asking this to my friends for about two years now, in hopes of finding a culturally “accepted” answer. don’t pretend like you haven’t considered the notion, either. > > **if you have sex with your own clone, is it incest, or just masturbation???** > > discuss. \*\* In “Wolf Pack” by Robert Charette mention is made of somehow deleting the sex determining genes to make a female version of an existing male. I have no clue if something like this is theoretically possible but what a perfect SO!! As long as you don’t want kids :eek: ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clone-sex/102091/5 "2002-04-06T02:01:52Z")
Heh, if I had a clone, I’d be ready to go at em regardless of whether it was male or female. Though I’d imagine I’d annoy the shit out of myself after a while. Erek ---
**Author:** ![Hosayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/2acd7d/32.png) [@Hosayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hosayf)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clone-sex/102091/6 "2002-04-06T02:18:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by WillGolfForFood \* > \*\* > > I realize that this is going to be difficult to believe, but until now I’d never even considered the notion of having my own clone in the first place. \*\* Wow, and after reading the OP I thought I was the only one. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clone-sex/102091/7 "2002-04-06T02:36:05Z")
Jarrod, Elijah, what do you think about this pressing issue? Jarrod: I want apple juice Elijah: I’m not a clone, I’m Elijah. Well there you have it folks, my 3 1/2 year old identical twin sons have summed it up nicely. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clone-sex/102091/8 "2002-04-06T07:14:01Z")
\*if you have sex with your own clone, is it incest, or just masturbation??? \* Or © it’s the basis of a Pat Benetar song. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clone-sex/102091/9 "2002-04-06T07:46:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by drachillix \* > \*\*In “Wolf Pack” by Robert Charette mention is made of somehow deleting the sex determining genes to make a female version of an existing male. I have no clue if something like this is theoretically possible but what a perfect SO!! As long as you don’t want kids :eek: \*\* Glad you made this point. Also why would you want kids, when you could have clones\*. \*Actually I think wanting to clone yourself is stupid, but I’m just going along to get along. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clone-sex/102091/10 "2002-04-06T07:56:49Z")
Truthfully, this one could go in General Questions. There is actually a factually correct answer to the OP. For sex with a clone to constitute “masturbation”, your clone would have to be considered part of _you_. There is no basis for such an assumption. A clone is a separate person from you, genetically identical, but with different experiences, memories, thoughts, and a different (though likely similar) personality. A clone would be in some ways like a twin sibling, but a clone would be younger than you by however many years old you were at the time the clone was made–a clone of an adult would not, of course, be a full-sized identical copy of that adult; a clone would be a zygote which would develop into a baby. A clone formed from an adult could be seen, morally speaking, as more like a child of that adult than a sibling. If two clones were formed from an adult at the same time, they would be siblings of each other. In either case, clone sex would be a form of incest–a cross between sibling incest and parent-child incest in the first case; and incest between twin siblings in the second case. (Of course, barring some genetic manipulations even more complex than simple cloning, a clone will be of the same sex as the parent organism, so we’re not talking about the sort of incest which could result in inbred children.) If an adult had himself or herself cloned, sex with the clone might also constitute child molestation, if the clonee didn’t wait long enough before initiating the relationship. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clone-sex/102091/11 "2002-04-06T17:03:46Z")
Please see _Time Enough for Love_ and two following novels by Robert A. Heinlein, and _The Man Who Folded Himself_ by David Gerrold. (To get technical, the latter book covers a man who uses a time machine to go back and have sex with himself, but the ethical question remains the same.) ---
**Author:** ![ChoosyChipsAndCeilingWhacks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c77e96/32.png) [@ChoosyChipsAndCeilingWhacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChoosyChipsAndCeilingWhacks)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clone-sex/102091/12 "2002-04-06T17:28:05Z")
No one else wants to have sex with me, so why would _I_ want to? If I have all this cloning power and stuff, I’m going to make myself my very own Benjamin Bratt and do him instead. L ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2002, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clone-sex/102091/13 "2002-04-07T06:18:06Z")
> [@](#): > > Please see Time Enough for Love and two following novels by Robert A. Heinlein, and The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold. Or _The Phantom of Kansas_ by John Varley or _Kiln People_ by David Brin. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clone-sex/102091/14 "2002-04-09T04:17:48Z")
As a clone, I think it would be incest (depening on what sort of societal taboos devop with cloning), and my clone says “eww.” She’s only 28 minutes older than me, though. The notion that it might be masturbation I find annoying. Clones have identity issues enough as it is. Leave us alone. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clone-sex/102091/15 "2002-04-09T04:37:45Z")
Do an internet search for “identical twin incest” and you’ll see clones going at it without lending a moment’s thought to the philosophical implications. Incidentally, if your clone makes a pass at you and you’re so disgusted and incensed that you throw him/her out a window, is that making an obscene clone fall? ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clone-sex/102091/16 "2002-04-09T21:20:00Z")
The question shows that the OPer doesn’t understand the nature of cloning. Cloning occasionally occurs NATURALLY. My sisters are clones of each other. They are both individual human beings. If one sister killed the other sister it wouldn’t be suicide, would it? They are not legally or morally considered the same person, they are considered two persons. One you accept that identical twins are individual humans and not the same human, it therefore follows that clones will of course be individual humans and not the same person. And therefore the answer to the question is obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clone-sex/102091/17 "2002-04-09T22:35:39Z")
I see sci-fi writer Donald Kingsbury every few months at our MonSFFA meetings. He mentioned (and I agree) that then title of the upcoming _Star Wars: Atack of the Clones_ is stupid. Since clones are human beings, why not just say _Attack of the Humans_?