# 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:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/41 "2022-01-19T19:46:33Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > successful polo horses being cloned: Okay, so we’ve had Dolly the sheep , and now polo horses. But what about cats and dogs? There would be real money to be made… Everybody loves their puppy and kitty. And there are lots of people who would pay big bucks for a perfect copy of their favorite pet. Why hasn’t this become a big business? ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/42 "2022-01-19T19:53:22Z")
The pet cloning industry already exists. Many companies do it. For example: > **[Dog Cloning, Cloned Dog, Pet Cloning Services, Clone Your Dog](https://www.viagenpets.com/dog-cloning/)** > > Interested in dog cloning? At Viagen Pets, we give dog owners a chance to extend the life of their companion. We offer dog cloning service to pet owners across the country. I would guess that it’s not super common since most pets aren’t really that unique. Each pet will be unique, but generally any dog is going to be similar to most other dogs. Someone who loses their pet poodle can get another poodle that’s pretty much the same. Cloning is probably more about satisfying the emotional need of holding onto their past pet rather than really needing a clone of the same dog. ---
**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, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/43 "2022-01-19T20:08:46Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Everybody loves their puppy and kitty. And there are lots of people who would pay big bucks for a perfect copy of their favorite pet. > Why hasn’t this become a big business? I’d feel as though I was betraying my pet if I cloned him. I can imagine my recently departed cat, Tibby, looking down on me from Kitty Heaven, shaking his head, thinking, _how COULD you!_ …but, kids? Sure, I’d clone them in an instant. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2022, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/44 "2022-01-20T17:13:33Z")
From a personality standpoint, it’s Nature vs. Nurture. Anyone expecting a cloned pet (or child) to act EXACTLY like the original is fooling themselves. Yeah, they may have some of the same tendancies, but “nurture” has a whole hell of a lot to do with their personalities. Now, if you’re looking for exact matches for organ donations,… ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2022, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/45 "2022-01-21T02:23:41Z")
Even in fiction folks give up the chance to clone a pet. I never would have thought I’d have tears in my eyes over an episode of Futurama, but _Jurassic Bark_ did it to me. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2022, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/46 "2022-01-22T01:55:18Z")
I remember reading some crappy pulp novel in the 90s where the bad guy was some rich pedophile on an island who would clone famous people secretly to then have sex with them, and since he was a pedophile he didn’t have to wait that long for it! The good guy vigilante was so disgusted he basically set fire to the entire island and killed everyone clones and all. But the clones WANTED to die, so he was actually doing the right thing. I’m pretty sure it was from the same book series where the vigilante hero fought evil Mail Carriers who were all part of a secret terrorist cell (since this was the 90s and Mailmen with guns was a hot topic) ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2022, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/47 "2022-01-22T02:27:31Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#): > > Anyone expecting a cloned pet (or child) to act EXACTLY like the original is fooling themselves. Speaking of [cloning pets](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manacled_Mormon_case#Later_developments)…yeah, there’s not a lot of rational thought going on in that particular cranium. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2022, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/48 "2022-01-22T02:32:33Z")
There’s an old joke. I heard it a little differently but… > Once there was a mad scientist who worked by himself in his laboratory. > He was so lonely that one day, he decided to clone himself. Everything > worked perfectly, except that the clone had a very foul mouth. The > scientist worked with the clone, but alas, he could not make the clone > clean up his language. He got so tired of the clone’s language that one > day he pushed him off the end of a cliff. A policeman rushed up to him > and yelled “You are under arrest! You are under arrest!” > > “What for?” the mad scientist asked. > > And the policeman’s answer was: For making an obscene clone fall. > **[Help with joke](https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/help-with-joke.725395/)** > > Apparently one of the electromagnetics professors told this in class and decided to post it in the course newsgroup because people either really liked it or happened to miss it. I read it and i don't get it. Then, like any resourceful person, i threw... ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2022, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/49 "2022-01-22T15:14:18Z")
Where’s that Dislike button? 😁 ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2022, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/50 "2022-01-23T00:15:20Z")
In the film Multiplicity, Michael Keaton is cloned, then behind his back the clone gets himself cloned, and the clone’s clone does it, and each copy-of-a-copy is a little blurrier, like with a Xerox machine, which in cloning terms means by the fourth iteration you have a fairly erratic personality. That’s one potential downside. The movie was also a serious reflection on the ethics of self-replication. I think one of the first restrictions that had to be strictly adhered to was “No Clone Nookie!”, after one of the copies ended up in bed with the Original’s wife. Yeah, I can see how that could be a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2022, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/51 "2022-01-23T00:24:00Z")
Which raises the legal question of if any child would be the offspring of the original (assume for the sake of this argument that the wife & clone had sex consensually and with full knowledge of the situation). I’m guessing not, since others have said that clones are kinda like identical twins? ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2022, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/52 "2022-01-23T00:27:08Z")
No Clone Nookie! That has to be rule #1. Already we’re on a slippery slope. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2022, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/53 "2022-01-23T03:30:20Z")
What if your wife wants a threesome? ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2022, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/54 "2022-01-23T03:40:51Z")
For some reason that does seem like a relatively non-threatening threesome. Kind of like having sex with the same person twice, but at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2022, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/55 "2022-01-23T03:49:14Z")
🎶 Slip-slidin’ away . . . slip-slidin’ away . . . 🎵 ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2022, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/56 "2022-01-23T06:40:21Z")
Sounds like a misunderstanding of the difference between a biological twin or clone, and the duplicate (double) or _Doppelgänger._ ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2022, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/57 "2022-01-23T06:49:06Z")
No sir, they were clones, just a special type that popped out of the clone machine as perfect Michael Keaton copies, well at least they looked the same. It was Science, not the boring biology kind but science as we like it, where anything cool is posible and nobody bothers worrying about the implications, like who’s going to pay for the Clone Chow? ---
**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 23, 2022, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/58 "2022-01-23T15:32:46Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > like who’s going to pay for the Clone Chow? Sigh…Amazon keeps sending me _Clown_ Chow. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2022, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007/59 "2022-01-23T15:40:42Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > who’s going to pay for the Clone Chow? Cannibalism is the cost-efficient answer. Only the strong survive! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-someone-already-cloned-a-person/958007.md?page=2)