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The soul begins at conception. There is no coming together of egg and sperm with cloning procedures.

Neither is cloning a "late twin."

With twins, the entire early cell structure splits completely in half, and it is a natural process. However, the twinning process does call into question whether clones might have a soul (mitigating in favor of this view.)

Cloning involves taking a complete set of living DNA code from the cell of an adult and placing it within the mechanisms of an unfertilized egg, after the 1/2 DNA code of the unfertilized egg has been removed.

This complete set of living DNA code, under the influence of hormonal and chemical baths, then takes over the cellular mechanism of the host egg and replicates in a fashion similar to that of a fertilized egg.

However, it is simply a cell line continuation of the donor's cell's DNA, in this case replicating in a viable egg.

At no point did this life begin.

I'd like to hear from a moral theologian on this. I'm probably wrong, but I do not believe such cloning is even possible, I do not believe it has indeed happened, and if it does, I still doubt it will have a new human soul.

God is not our little genie that we manipulate and call forth from his genie bottle at our whim and pleasure.

Test-tube babies have souls, yet in vitro fertilization is contrary to Catholic doctrine.

Not only that, but many of those sextuplets & septuplets were conceived by parents who had taken fertility drugs. These clones aren't naturally occurring either.

Then again, there's another market for SoulAid. If there's only one soul to go around... :-)

We don't know. That is the main point. We can ponder and discuss but nothing changes. We are not the deciding factor - God is the Creator. I would not suggest that He would provide a soul to something created by man. Why should He?

God has a plan for man and the fact that man does not believe in God and tampers with creation of life does not mean that God changes His plan.

"Test-tube babies have souls, yet in vitro fertilization is contrary to Catholic doctrine."

But test tube babies have a mother and a father and perhaps the soul is instilled through that coming together process. In any case, you are taking a natural means of creating a human life and just giving it a little "help". You aren't really creating it.

Actually, I don't think there are any easy answers to the cloning issue, but there are a lot of questions. That in itself should be reason enough to put on the brakes. I have often feared that our knowledge and ability would leap ahead of our wisdom in using what we know, but human nature being what it is, and with many, if not most, scientists acting as if science itself is "God" I can't help wondering if it is an exercise in futility to even raise the argument. It seems that the die is cast and we will see this reality and learn firsthand whether or not it was a good idea. I don't expect a net positive result though.