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Something I've been pondering- in a future where it's possible to create a clone of a specific person at the age that person is now (instead of as a baby) and, for various reasons government and law enforcement need a way to distinguish a clone from the person they were cloned from- how would they go about doing it?

king of panes
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    Does the clone know that it is a clone? – Jani Miettinen Sep 22 '23 at 20:19
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    Do the clones have the same memories as the original copy? – WellActually... Sep 22 '23 at 20:36
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    Identical twins exist, and they are clones. Somehow, law enforcement has never found this to be an insurmountable problem. They still have different fingerprints, for example. There are many traits which are developmental, and not determined by the genetic code. – AlexP Sep 22 '23 at 20:47
  • The word clone has a well-established biological meaning and does not mean copy, except when speaking informally of close imitations of commercial products. (And even in that sense, it does not mean identical copy.) – AlexP Sep 22 '23 at 20:52
  • Not enough for an actual answer - but: "The same way that they tell Identical Twins apart". – TheDemonLord Sep 22 '23 at 20:56
  • @KingofPanes, The question that caused your question to be closed was asking, "if law enforcement didn't do anything to tag a clone, how would they detect the clone?" You appear to be asking, "what could law enforcement/government do to tag a clone?" I think people jumped to a conclusion based on your title question and not the body of your text, which isn't as clear. Are you asking how to naturally distinguish between clone and source, or how a government would tag a clone? If the later, I want to make that clear in your post and vote to reopen. – JBH Sep 23 '23 at 22:50
  • @JBH- I'm asking how they'd scientifically tell if someone was the clone and not the original, if that's what you mean by tag, then it would be the latter. – king of panes Sep 24 '23 at 00:13

2 Answers2

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  1. Fingerprints or retinal scan : These are grown, not pre-determined by DNA
  2. Tattoos or scars: In a future world where cloning is a problem, maybe everyone gets a barcode at birth
  3. Mind scanner or lie detector (this relies on future tech of a lie detector machine that isn't actually a farce, unlike modern polygraphs)
  4. Maybe there are signature copying errors to look for, similar to how forensic scientists can examine photos for clues of tampering
Atog
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It depends on cloning technology, do they have the memories of the original? Is the clone, cloned from DNA and grown in lab or is it a model of the original's current form. If it is the former then the police could tell from any injures the original may have as the og would have gotten it from a situation they have lived through rather than from birth. If it is the latter then the police could possibly gleen the info from any habits the original may have. Habit are developed over time and no matter how good the clone they simply wouldn't have the muscle memory like the original.

Ricin
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