Human cloning is often presented as though clones grow and develop inside a test tube until the adult human clones produced are indistinguishable from the original human they were cloned from and indistinguishable from each other as well. If you want to produce five clones of NBA player Stephen Curry, place five of his treated cells in five separate test tubes and incubate until the fully formed clones are ready to take the court. Each of these clones would have the athletic ability, height, drive, and temperament to succeed in the NBA.

Cloned humans are identical in every way.

Questions

1. What has to happen to an embryo produced by human cloning for continued early development to occur?
2. Would human reproductive cloning using cells from an adult immediately produce an adult clone?
3. If Stephen Curry was cloned five times, and each of the babies grew up in a household with different eating habits, ranging from very unhealthy to very healthy, do you think all five clones would grow to be exactly 6 feet, 3 inches tall?
4. Identical twins are clones of each other. List a few nongenetic factors that account for the fact that clones like identical twins do not share the same personalities, ambitions, and interests.
5. Consider your answers to questions 1–4 and explain why the original statement bolded above sounds right, but isn’t.