# Has someone already cloned a person? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 18, 2022, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007 "2022-01-18T17:18:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/21 "2022-01-18T19:03:58Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > But even there, you would have to “grow” the clone to adulthood Not necessarily, if you can perfect biological scaffolding technology. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/22 "2022-01-18T19:13:11Z")
I can envision an unethical young billionaire, say in his 20s, who’s forward-thinking enough to anticipate that, at some time in the next few decades, some organ or other of his might fail, and producing a clone every few years so he always has some young “donor” to “harvest” when the need comes. He’d probably get caught, of course, but I can still envision someone trying it. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/23 "2022-01-18T19:43:31Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > There have yet to be any legitimate and believable claims that anybody has gone that far. The technology is certainly already there but the legal and ethical bits are very tricky, as you might imagine. It’s certainly possible somebody has done so clandestinely but, if so, they aren’t talking. This. As far as the technical aspects, my guess is that humans would not be particularly problematic compared to other species. Not the easiest, but probably far from being the most difficult. Legal and ethical aspects are a different story. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/24 "2022-01-18T19:49:54Z")
In the link I posted, somebody did go as far as to clone human embryos but they were never implanted. They basically did everything you’d need to produce a human clone except put the embryos in a womb. It’s not technically problematic at all. But there are several nations that have made it illegal to produce a human clone. And even where it isn’t outright illegal, the ethical aspects are definitely thorny. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/25 "2022-01-18T20:00:22Z")
Cloning embryos is much different than cloning adult cells. AFAIK, cloning adult cells requires either somehow getting them to act like embryos, or extracting the DNA and put it into an embryo. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/26 "2022-01-18T20:01:03Z")
> [@Kimera757](#): > > Assuming scientists get past the hurdles (and I assume they will) it’s basically ego stroking (from the scientist and possibly clone’s “parent”). Possibly, but looking at how advertising his ethically quesiontable genomic manipulation worked out for [He Jiankui,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He_Jiankui_affair) I’m not sure that others might not prefer to keep it under wraps. > He was immediately detained on SUSTech’s campus and kept under surveillance. On 30 December 2019, Chinese authorities announced that he was found guilty of forging documents and unethical conduct; he was sentenced to three years in prison with a three-million-[yuan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_yuan) fine (US$430,000) ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/27 "2022-01-18T20:10:15Z")
It seems like the cost of producing and maintaining the clone might be more expensive than supporting research on artificial organs - but Billy Billionaire might not realize that until too late ---
**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/28 "2022-01-18T20:18:20Z")
I think that was the scientist I was talking about 🙂 But I might have been thinking of someone else who didn’t do gene editing. I expect such a scientist would still advertise after the fact, despite the consequences. It’s already illegal (or close to it) but they’ve got an ego to satisfy. We live in a society where criminals will advertise what they did on Instagram, typically without giving away their real name, and it wouldn’t surprise me if scientists tried to do this sort of thing before social media. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/29 "2022-01-18T20:22:48Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I can envision an unethical young billionaire, say in his 20s, who’s forward-thinking enough to anticipate that, at some time in the next few decades, some organ or other of his might fail, and producing a clone every few years so he always has some young “donor” to “harvest” when the need comes. I saw a documentary on this subject. It was called “Parts: The Clonus Horror”. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/30 "2022-01-18T20:44:18Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > Cloning embryos is much different than cloning adult cells. AFAIK, cloning adult cells requires either somehow getting them to act like embryos, or extracting the DNA and put it into an embryo. Yes, a different academic group has [done this](https://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/fulltext/S1934-5909(14)00137-4?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS1934590914001374%3Fshowall%3Dtrue). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/31 "2022-01-18T20:47:28Z")
I can think of one way that humans might be more difficult than other animals. The first cloned mammals had drastically reduced lifespans. I imagine that progress has been made on that front, but I don’t know how much. But suppose that they made improvements to the point that those problems don’t show up for ten years, or twenty: On most mammals, that’d be good enough, because most mammals only have a lifespan about that long, anyway. But a human who only lived for ten or twenty years could hardly be called a “success”. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/32 "2022-01-18T21:11:27Z")
YOU GUYS! It may have already happened! Back in 2008, somebody was blasting out emails to people in the news media, claiming that Scarlett Johansson was a clone. I don’t know if anybody asked Scarlett about it—but if she was a clone, how would she know? Those clones in _Orphan Black_ had no idea! > **["Scarlett Johansson Is Actually A Clone"](https://jezebel.com/scarlett-johansson-is-actually-a-clone-5100864)** > > Perhaps if she were not so stunningly beautiful, we could dismiss this email, which arrived via the tips line this morning. But she is, and so we cannot ignore this urgent missive. Because: What if Scarlett Johansson actually is a clone? Breaking... I had forgotten about this until last summer, when a Scarlett lookalike turned up on TikTok: > **[TikTok’s Scarlett Johansson lookalike is taking over the internet - Dexerto](https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/tiktoks-scarlett-johansson-lookalike-is-taking-over-the-internet-1610462/)** > > Scarlett Johansson lookalike 'Kate Johansson' is going insanely viral on TikTok, gaining over 5 million followers for her videos. Huh. 😐 ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/33 "2022-01-18T21:16:53Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The first cloned mammals had drastically reduced lifespans. Probably not an issue. Dolly the sheep lasted 7 years, which is slightly short for a sheep, but clones of Dolly [aged normally](https://dolly.roslin.ed.ac.uk/legacy/roundups/nottingham-dollies-show-that-cloned-sheep-age-normally/index.html). ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/34 "2022-01-18T21:17:21Z")
I could imagine a star athlete wanting a child who also has the potential to be a star athlete. Lots of parents want their child to be athletically successful. If a parent already has the genetics to pull that off, might as well have use cloning to ensure they have a child that they know can physically compete at that level. I heard about successful polo horses being cloned: > **[Six cloned horses help rider win prestigious polo match](https://www.science.org/content/article/six-cloned-horses-help-rider-win-prestigious-polo-match)** > > Celebrated rider Adolfo Cambiaso mounts six horses named Cuartetera It seems like human cloning could be used for something similar. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/35 "2022-01-18T21:52:13Z")
They need to clone Adolfo 6 times to ride his 6 cloned horses. That would be a fun polo match. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/36 "2022-01-19T00:14:27Z")
Cloning human beings is fraught with too many ethical dilemmas. …but not if we genetically engineer out all their higher cortical brain functions involved with emotions, reasoning, etc. With all of their humanness bred out, we’d only have to grant them the same basic rights as, say, a lizard. Then we set them out into the workforce, doing the jobs they do best: bomb defusers, lawyers, football players, attorneys, sex workers, members of the bar, politicians, counselors-at-law, social media influences, legal advisors… Did I mention lawyers? ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/37 "2022-01-19T06:26:18Z")
> [@Folly](#): > > Oh, I don’t know. No billionaire out there that has lost a child in a tragic accident or the like? And then lost their mind a little? > > I also doubt that it’s happened though. Sure, that’s often a reliable source of research funds. All that’s needed for this to have happened is: 1. This obscenely rich parent with serious mental issues after losing a child. 2. Deciding to pursue cloning, and doing so in absolute secrecy. 3. Contacting only people who’ve kept their mouths shut since. 4. Still managing to reach someone who can competently clone mature cells. 5. No one learning about it. Not even in the form of anonymous op-eds in the Washington Post. Maybe I’m just naively pessimistic about the success rate of super secret, unethical, private sector research projects … ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/38 "2022-01-19T17:41:13Z")
Back in the late 70s, I read in OMNI a rumor that the unnamed man who was cloned in this book was Alex Comfort, the author of _The Joy of Sex._ There is a certain irony there. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/39 "2022-01-19T17:57:08Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > There is a certain irony there. Well, [OTOH](https://www.swil.org/FILKS/filkbook4.html#0): > [@](#): > > Oh, give me a clone of my own flesh and bone > With the Y chromosome changed to an X > And when she is grown, my very own clone > Will be of the opposite sex. > > Clone, clone of my own, > With the Y chromosome changed to an X > And when we’re alone, since her mind is my own, > She’ll be thinking of nothing but sex. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/40 "2022-01-19T19:25:36Z")
I don’t know if there are any human clones out there, but I find it laughable that ethics and legality are any kind of obstacle to a fairly large percentage of the people (and governments) out there with the resources to create one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007.md?page=3)