The problem is that the original has all legal rights and the clone has zero legal right (no money, can be killed, tortured, never see love ones) which creates incentive to take original’s place—AND both the original and clone know this. If original thinks “may be the clone many want to kill me”, he knows that the same thought is also in the mind of the clone etc.
This creates fast moving spiral of suspicion, in which only stable end point is desire to kill the other copy first.
The only way to prevent this is to announce publicly the creation of the copy and share rights with it.
There’s a fantastic bit in Brothers in Arms, from Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga. An enemy has cloned Miles, and they’ve trained the clone from birth to assassinate Miles’ father.
Miles is struggling to figure out how to deal with a murderous clone. And he realizes that under Betan law, the cloned assassin is his brother:
[Mile’s] mouth opened, closed, opened again. “Except that—I keep hearing my mother’s voice, in my head. That’s where I picked up that perfect Betan accent, y’know, that I use for Admiral Naismith. I can hear her now.”
“And what does she say?” Galeni’s brows twitched in amusement.
“Miles—she says—what have you done with your baby brother?!”
“Your clone is hardly that!” choked Galeni.
“On the contrary, by Betan law my clone is exactly that.”
“Madness.” Galeni paused. “Your mother could not possibly expect you to look out for this creature.”
“Oh, yes, she could.” Miles sighed glumly. A knot of unspoken panic made a lump in his chest. Complex, too complex . . .
Now, Miles is essentially the patron saint of forward momentum, of spinning bullshit into reality, of the entirely sincere noble gesture. And with a lever like his clone’s legal brotherhood? Yes, Miles can find a way cooperate with his own clone.
The problem is that the original has all legal rights and the clone has zero legal right (no money, can be killed, tortured, never see love ones) which creates incentive to take original’s place—AND both the original and clone know this. If original thinks “may be the clone many want to kill me”, he knows that the same thought is also in the mind of the clone etc.
This creates fast moving spiral of suspicion, in which only stable end point is desire to kill the other copy first.
The only way to prevent this is to announce publicly the creation of the copy and share rights with it.
There’s a fantastic bit in Brothers in Arms, from Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga. An enemy has cloned Miles, and they’ve trained the clone from birth to assassinate Miles’ father.
Miles is struggling to figure out how to deal with a murderous clone. And he realizes that under Betan law, the cloned assassin is his brother:
Now, Miles is essentially the patron saint of forward momentum, of spinning bullshit into reality, of the entirely sincere noble gesture. And with a lever like his clone’s legal brotherhood? Yes, Miles can find a way cooperate with his own clone.