Cloning plays a crucial role in Edward Ashton’s novel Mickey7. Mickey Barnes is an Expendable, a person who takes on dangerous jobs that kill him. When he dies, his consciousness is uploaded into a new clone of his original body. According to the National Human Genome Research Institute, cloning “involves using scientific methods to make identical, or virtually identical, copies of an organism, cell or DNA sequence” (Biesecker, Leslie G. “Cloning.” National Human Genome Research Institute, 24 Apr. 2025). The term “nearly identical” hints at Mickey7’s philosophical dilemma about himself and whether he is the “real” Mickey Barnes. “Clone” as a term was coined by plant physiologist Herbert J. Webber in 1903; Webber derived the word from the Ancient Greek term “klon,” which means “twig,” to describe the process of propagating new plants from cuttings, buds, or bulbs (“Science Diction: The Origin of the Word ‘Clone.’” NPR Talk of the Nation, 11 Mar. 2011). As science progressed, it gradually changed from a term concerned with plants to one with broader implications. Some cloning is natural, as some plants, fungi, and bacteria are capable of cloning themselves to reproduce (also known as asexual reproduction). Humans can also clone naturally, as in the case of identical, or monozygotic, twins, which emerge when the same fertilized egg (or zygote) splits in utero.

Cloning as a scientific process has progressed in the latter half of the 20th century into the 21st century. There are three main types of cloning: gene, or molecular, cloning, which is utilized to make identical copies of DNA segments or genes to study genetics, produce proteins, or even make genetically modified organisms (GMOs); therapeutic cloning, which utilizes the creation of embryonic stem cells via somatic-cell nuclear transfer to study certain cells or research cues for diseases; and organism, or reproductive, cloning, which attempts to create a genetic copy of a whole organism (“Cloning.” MedlinePlus, 8 May 2018). Organism cloning from a somatic cell (somatic-cell nuclear transfer) first succeeded in 1996, when scientists successfully created Dolly the sheep. Dolly was created by taking a mammary cell from an adult Finn-Dorset ewe and inserting it into a sheep ovum (“The Story of Dolly the Sheep.” National Museums Scotland).

Though Dolly was created via organism cloning, no attempts at replicating the results with humans have yet been made due to ethical concerns and controversies. Therapeutic cloning for humans (cloning cells taken from humans for medical research) is being studied but not yet implemented. Organism cloning, however, carries greater ethical concerns and has not been attempted by scientists. There are both secular and religious issues with human cloning. Secularly, people worry cloning could lead to potential human rights violations for cloned people (something that Ashton explores in Mickey7, as Mickey is often mistreated because of his role as an Expendable). Religiously, many people believe that cloning takes the act of reproduction out of God’s hands. This mirrors Ashton’s invented religion of Natalism, in which believers find the recreated Expendables to be flawed and soulless.

Cloning is a popular topic in science fiction literature. One of the first novels to tackle cloning was Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopian science fiction novel Brave New World. In the novel, all people are created via artificial wombs in factories. Though this is not precisely cloning, as the factories generate different individuals, Huxley’s speculation that such technology could exist in the future matches Ashton’s depictions of the process that creates new clones of the Expendables. Instead of wombs, Ashton describes the creation of new clones in a goo-filled tank, utilizing the protein and calcium from the biowaste of the colony to create new versions of Mickey, offering another potential model for future cloning practices.