Mickey7

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).