Clones

Cloning is a branch of biotechnology concerned with producing individuals with identical or virtually identical DNA to a source organism. Cloning in horticulture has been practiced for millennia, while the first successful clone of an animal, a sea urchin, was created in the late 1800s, with progressive advancements over the next century leading to the first successfully cloned mammal, a sheep, in 1994. Various animal clones were created over the next few decades, but one area of particular interest naturally was human cloning. In 2001, the first human embryo was cloned, leading to serious discussions regarding the ethics of human cloning. Although techniques and understanding of processes improved over time, human cloning remained a taboo topic, and attempts to clone humans were forbidden by international law. Gene therapy for military purposes was also banned. 
Following the 2014 invasion, previous regulation on human cloning and genome editing was ignored as third party, non-state entities began dabbling. By 2018, human cloning on a borderline industrial scale was already secretly being carried out by the Engineers. By 2019, the existence of clones had become public knowledge, and by 2020, use of therapeutic cloning was already beginning to take place in the medical industry, although mastery of the science and its legality vary considerably by nation, with cloned organs and limbs being sought after by individuals not wanting to deal with the hassle of machine replacements, which tend to be cheaper up front but require regular replacement and maintenance and can be vulnerable to electromagnetic anomalies that would cripple the recipient. A cloned replacement limb or organ, while typically far more expensive, usually does not need replacement after implanting and a comparatively shorter regimen of drugs to ease the process of the limb or organ growing into the body. Limbs in particular are seen as highly preferable due to most people disliking the aesthetic and/or inferior performance of cybernetic replacements, though are outside the price range of most people. 
Full body clones are, excluding the Kantoku, much rarer partly due to increased cost and mostly due to substantially greater ethical concerns generally making their creation illegal. Nonetheless, full clones have been created, usually to serve very specific purposes. The Engineers’ leadership had previously created a number of full clones of friends both alive and dead without consent or authorization, apparently for memorial purposes. These clones were, according to the Engineers, destroyed after their discovery. The methods used to produce Kantoku on the scale and speed needed for the Global Infiltration Plot required clones to be created extremely quickly, with the fastest recorded growth speed of a clone being from zygote to fully grown adult in four weeks. While this met the timescale set for the Engineer’s plans, such extreme growth speed was found to have an extremely adverse effect on the clone’s lifespan, with all such specimens dying within 18 months of their “birth” date. Although a treatment plan was devised to regain most of the lost lifespan, it was readily identified to be extremely cost inefficient to employ on anything more than a small scale, and the growth process had to be redesigned from the ground up for slower, more stable development. 
Regardless of the specific means by which the clone is created, the resulting egg can either be implanted into the womb of a surrogate mother, an artificial womb or grown within a culture tank. Given the dubiously legal nature of full body cloning, the latter two methods could certainly be said to be the more common. The “natural” method, however, allows the specimen to develop as a normal human and has far fewer failure rates than the tank method. 
===Cloning and Armor Corps/New Zealand===
As with cybernetics, the Armor Corps Coalition’s foray and pioneering into the field of biotechnology was spurred by a desire to see Vannai technology applied for the benefit of its Pilots. Loss of limbs in combat was not uncommon, while Wilder Syndrome’s progressive organ failure was hoped to potentially be staved off with the transfer of new, healthy clone organs into the body. Additionally, a number of Pilots survived otherwise total obliteration through their cyberbrains, and could only continue to exist as humans through their cyberbrain’s integration into a Heorot-class supercomputer. It was theoretically possible that the cyberbrain could be implanted into a cloned body of the original, allowing the Pilot to live their lives as before without having to resort to a full-body prosthetic. As far as anyone knew, however, the science simply wasn't there just yet. In reality, the Engineers had secretly been producing legions of clones and seeding them throughout the globe as infiltrators. It wasn’t until after the Dokuritsu Insurrection that the true depth of the Engineers’ insanity was revealed, but with it came admittedly valuable data on human cloning and genome editing that was eventually repatriated to AC R&D, which used the data to open the way for long-awaited therapeutic cloning medical treatments. As a result, New Zealand is considered the best place in the world to go for cloning-related medical treatments. Cloning is legal but strictly monitored with legislation in place to prevent the creation of duplicate persons. Cloned individuals are considered human beings and are granted human rights.
===Cloning and ARHK===
ARHK respects the ethical ramifications of cloning and genetic manipulation, largely in the hopes of avoiding the Engineers’ legacy of perversion, and under the watchful eye of their Ethics Director, Farkas Horvath, forbid the artificial creation of intelligent life forms. However, they do have several drastic gene altering programs which they seek to bring to the global market, supported by the most complete data records of the Engineers’ experiments outside of Japan itself. ARHK has also sought to address world hunger issues through employing gene editing in agriculture to produce hardier crops with better yields.
===Cloning and The American Coalition===
While the AmC forbids the creation of clones and officially bans research into human cloning, clones themselves are not barred entry from the Coalition’s territory, and are guaranteed the respective human rights. They are legally considered separate people from their genetic donor. The AmC also encourages the use of cloning techniques for the creation of replacement limbs and organs, as well as gene therapy treatments for genetic-related illnesses, and is considered one of the best places to go for such medical treatments, albeit at extraordinary monetary cost.
===Cloning and The Texan Republic===
Clones and genetic modification of any kind are highly illegal in the Texan Republic to the point where hybrid Pilots are ostracized by the public as unnatural creations.
===Cloning and The People’s Republic of California===
Alterations both surgical and genetic are extremely common in California and seen as desirable among the elite social classes. Extensive use of cloning technology is an open secret in California. The less human one is or appears, the more fashionable they are considered. California’s use of this technology in practical capacity is present but less pronounced, and their endeavors in genetic manipulation are largely self-accomplished due to not having the previous work of the Engineers to go off of. While an admittedly impressive feat, this also means the results tend to be “rougher” than intended, with the byproduct of a significant Runoff population in the California wilderness being the primary unvoiced indicator of their progress in this field being paved with many monstrous past failures.
===Cloning and The European Federation===
Europe forbids cloning of any kind. Clones and similar artificial persons do not have human rights and standing policy since the discovery of the Kantoku Global Infiltration Plot remains to violently persecute them wherever they are discovered.
===Cloning and Guangdong===
Previously housing some of the most cutting edge centers for biotechnology in the world, Guangdong retains a high knowledge base regarding the human genome, and is rumored to be continuing experiments in producing a genetic template for an “improved human” not dissimilar to the Engineer’s Watchmen program, the goal being to produce a stronger, faster, smarter and more loyal soldier. The Chinese do not have laws concerning cloning.
===Cloning and Japan===
The Japanese have become the foremost experts on cloning and genetic manipulation, in large part due to inheriting all of the work the Engineers did on the subject while occupying their homeland. Finding all other areas of adapting post-contact technology criminally neglected, the Japanese opted to specialize in bioengineering and have since produced a number of unnatural lifeforms, primarily for combat use. While they appear to have eschewed full person cloning, all of their creations appear to be at least partially based on human genetics. Not all of Japan’s biotech is used for militaristic purposes, however. The Japanese are the only nation to successfully produce Human-Vannai hybrids (elves) without requiring the use of a Suit, and have also solved the elf sterility issue, allowing elves to procreate with other elves and humans. Japan offers the opportunity to become a hybrid to those with the ability to pay, but the ability to procreate remains exclusively available to Japanese elves. 
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