I'm picking through T5 setting material and found that "guest" clones are mass produced as cheap labour and I'm not sure how this isn't classed as slavery. My best guess is that because their personalities are edited to make them passive and accepting and possibly like their job, it isn't slavery. But what about med clones produced for spare parts? I'm getting funny ideas now about an activist group who use terrorist tactics
How does the ban on slavery not extend to clones?
- Thread starter mb345345
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So clones that are not force grown are generally treated as separate individuals. The Norris' heir is a clone of himself (well, genetically engineered to be female, but in theory a clone). It is common enough that the term "Trueson" or "Truedaughter" is coined to reflect that practice.
I don't think there are any rules discussions outside of T5, but Agent of the Imperium deals with clones a few times. But AotI is kind of weird on the whole slavery thing. It has full on serfdom on some directly governed Imperial worlds and the clones were functionally slaves through prohibitively expensive indentures.
I think the Seldrian and False Strephon clones were discussed in Arrival Vengeance, but I don't have my copy of that any more and I can't remember whether it said anything actually interesting on the topic. The Regency Sourcebook talks about Seldrian a bit, but not in a meaningful way about cloning beyond "it happened", IIRC. And I hate that book overall, so I don't recommend buying it
I don't think there are any rules discussions outside of T5, but Agent of the Imperium deals with clones a few times. But AotI is kind of weird on the whole slavery thing. It has full on serfdom on some directly governed Imperial worlds and the clones were functionally slaves through prohibitively expensive indentures.
I think the Seldrian and False Strephon clones were discussed in Arrival Vengeance, but I don't have my copy of that any more and I can't remember whether it said anything actually interesting on the topic. The Regency Sourcebook talks about Seldrian a bit, but not in a meaningful way about cloning beyond "it happened", IIRC. And I hate that book overall, so I don't recommend buying it
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
It's probably hard to pin down, until it happens on a wide scale in real life.
If I had to guess, it depends on local laws; if they manage to get onto Imperium territory, they become recognized sentient sophonts, though they may still be in indentured servitude.
If I had to guess, it depends on local laws; if they manage to get onto Imperium territory, they become recognized sentient sophonts, though they may still be in indentured servitude.
I'd rather treat it as a campaign and setting decision than worry too much about canon.
For my purposes, I've assumed cloning took off first with children, then with clone lines (clone children having clone children), so there'd be a strong bias towards citizenship, at least at first.
Pulling in the other direction slightly, there's evidence from studies of identical twins that career choice and success is partly genetic. There's a famous case of separated twins who both became firefighters, for instance. This could lead to megacorps first recruiting from clone lines, then perhaps simply rolling their own. At first as full employees, but if you stumble across a worker who's both good at and happy in some dirty, dangerous job you might just take a sample, then accelerate the growth, training and hiring process to a point where, while they're all getting paychecks (and spending them at the company store) and theoretically free to quit, they're all company men in a very literal sense.
For my purposes, I've assumed cloning took off first with children, then with clone lines (clone children having clone children), so there'd be a strong bias towards citizenship, at least at first.
Pulling in the other direction slightly, there's evidence from studies of identical twins that career choice and success is partly genetic. There's a famous case of separated twins who both became firefighters, for instance. This could lead to megacorps first recruiting from clone lines, then perhaps simply rolling their own. At first as full employees, but if you stumble across a worker who's both good at and happy in some dirty, dangerous job you might just take a sample, then accelerate the growth, training and hiring process to a point where, while they're all getting paychecks (and spending them at the company store) and theoretically free to quit, they're all company men in a very literal sense.
David Drake's Hammers Slammers universe posits genetically engineered humans with animal dna spliced in to get around human rights protections. That gives you both paths, fully human clones have human rights, but there's a path for evil or greedy corps and rich people to get their chattel slaves as well.
thanks, I'm thinking that probably the Imperium is only half bothered about slavery, and that indentured servitude is a good enough loophole. Secondly they might reason that if a guest clone doesn't raise any objections to their situation it's not slavery. In my campaign at least, trade is likely to override sensibilities
