Cloning

Cloning brings up fascinating ethical questions that students love to debate. These questions work well for discussing science, morality, and what-if scenarios at different levels.

Questions are organized by level from beginner to advanced. A printable PDF of all the questions is available at the bottom of the page.

Beginner (A1-A2)

1. Do you know how scientists clone animals? What is the process?
2. What is something special about you that no one else has? Tell me about it.
3. Imagine you have a clone that looks exactly like you. What is the first thing you do together?
4. If your clone could go to work or school for you, what would you do with your free day?
5. Do you have anything that matches with a friend or family member? (The same shirt, phone, shoes, etc.) Tell me about it.
6. If there were two of you, what would you do differently every day?
7. Would you rather have a clone of yourself or a clone of your best friend? Why?
8. What animal would you most like to have two of? Why?
9. If you met someone who looked exactly like you on the street, what would you say to them?
10. Have you ever bought two of the same thing on purpose? What was it?

Elementary (A2)

1. Who do you look like in your family? Why do people say that?
2. If you could make two of something you have, what would you choose? Why?
3. Have you ever seen a movie about cloning or copies of people? What happened in it?
4. Do you like things that are exactly the same, or do you like when things are different? Give me some examples.
5. What would be strange about having a clone of yourself? What would be normal about it?
6. What questions would you ask someone if they told you they had a clone? Give me some examples.
7. If you had a clone, what jobs or chores would you give it? Why?
8. Have you ever wished you could be in two places at the same time? What was happening?
9. If you could copy one person’s cooking skills, whose would you choose? Why?
10. Some people dress exactly like their friends on purpose. Have you ever done this? What happened?
11. Would you like to have a twin brother or sister? What would be fun about it and what would be annoying?

Intermediate (B1)

1. Do you think scientists should be allowed to clone people? Why or why not?
2. Would you want to have a clone of yourself? Why or why not?
3. If we could clone dinosaurs like in Jurassic Park, would you want to? Why or why not?
4. How about if we could clone ancient humans, like Neanderthals or Australopithecus? Would you want to clone ancient humans?
5. What do you think cloning will be like in the future? Will cloning stop or expand?
6. If your pet died, would you want another one that looks the same? Why?
7. Do you think a clone of you would like the same food and music? Why?
8. Would you want to meet someone who looks exactly like you? Why?
9. Do you think cloning is scary or interesting? Why?
10. If scientists could bring back an extinct animal, which one would be most interesting? Why?
11. Would you trust food that came from a cloned animal? Why or why not?
12. Do you think cloning animals is different from cloning people? What makes them different?
13. What is one skill or talent you wish you could copy from someone else? Why that one?
14. Should scientists be allowed to clone pets? Why or why not?
15. Should there be laws about cloning? What kinds of laws would be important?
16. If someone cloned their dead pet, would it really be the same pet? Explain your thinking.
17. Should parents be allowed to choose specific traits when cloning? Why or why not?
18. Do you think cloning is natural or unnatural? What makes you think so?
19. If someone cloned a famous musician or artist, do you think the clone could create the same quality of work? Why or why not?
20. Some people say cloning is “playing God.” Do you agree with that idea? Why or why not?

Upper-Intermediate (B2)

1. What problems could cloning people solve?
2. Could cloning people lead to problems? What kinds of problems?
3. What if science could clone famous people like Albert Einstein or Leonardo Da Vinci? Do you think they would be as successful if they were brought back as clones?
4. How can cloning animals help science?
5. How has cloning technology changed how we think about medicine? What do you think about those changes?
6. How is cloning different from genetic engineering? What are the implications of each?
7. Compare attitudes toward cloning in different cultures or countries. What factors influence these differences?
8. How might cloning affect ideas about family and parenthood? What changes would be hardest to accept?
9. How do religious and ethical beliefs affect debates about cloning? Give examples from different viewpoints.
10. Compare how movies and TV shows portray cloning versus the reality of current cloning technology. How do these portrayals affect public opinion?
11. In several countries, human cloning is illegal but animal cloning is allowed. What do you think explains this difference?
12. Some scientists have cloned endangered animals, but the clones often have health problems and short lives. Does that make the effort worth it or not?
13. How would the existence of human clones challenge the legal system? Think about things like identity documents, inheritance, and criminal responsibility.
14. The first cloned animal, Dolly the sheep, became world-famous in 1996. How has public opinion about cloning changed since then, and what caused those changes?
15. When someone clones an extinct animal, they bring back its DNA but not its original environment or social group. How might this create problems that people don’t expect?

Advanced (C1)

1. What parallels exist between historical debates about other reproductive technologies and current debates about cloning? What can we learn from how previous technologies were regulated?
2. When a company like a food brand or a tech company patents a cloned organism, who really owns that life: the company, the scientists, or no one? How does this question get more complicated when we move from plants to animals to humans?
3. Cloning could theoretically let same-sex couples or single people have genetically related children without a partner. How might this shift the cultural and political debates around family, parenthood, and reproductive rights?
4. If scientists could grow cloned human organs for transplant but had to create and destroy embryos to do it, how should society balance the potential to save lives against the ethical cost?
5. Some dictators and authoritarian leaders have reportedly been interested in cloning technology. What makes cloning particularly attractive to people in power, and what risks does that create for ordinary citizens?
6. Wealthy people can already pay for pet cloning services that cost tens of thousands of dollars. What does the commercialization of cloning reveal about how money shapes who benefits from scientific breakthroughs?
7. A clone is genetically identical but grows up in a different time, family, and culture. How does this challenge the idea that our genes determine who we are, and what does it suggest about the role of environment in shaping a person?
8. Countries that ban cloning research often lose their top scientists to countries with fewer restrictions. How does the competition between nations for scientific talent affect where ethical lines get drawn?
9. The military has explored cloning research for various purposes. How might cloning technology change the ethics of warfare if soldiers, organs, or even weapons-grade biological material could be mass-produced?
10. People sometimes say that technology companies know us so well that they can almost predict what we will do next. If that keeps improving, how close does that get to creating a “digital clone” of a person, and what would that mean for privacy and personal freedom?
11. Identical twins share the same DNA but often develop very different personalities, careers, and beliefs. What does this tell us about how much control we really have over who we become, and how should that affect the way we think about cloning humans?

PDF: Download a PDF of all the questions