In which Tori debates the topic of cloning

But first I will catch you up on the last few days.
Thursday was my last day of internal uni stuff. I attended my Antarctic Ecology lecture and pre-exam tute and handed in my Antarctic Tourism major assignment. It was all over and done with by 4:30pm. No more uni for Tori (well I still have a pre-exam tute for EIA on Friday and four exams but they dont really count).

Yesterday I went to visit Twistie and found there was a horse in my paddock impersonating Twistie cause it couldnt be Twistie. When I got there the-horse-which-wasnt-Twistie was trotting around its paddock. I knew then that it wasnt Twistie cause my horse is lazy and simply meanders around munching on grass. I then got the-horse-which-wasnt-Twistie out of the paddock and tacked it up. Surprisingly all my saddlery fitted perfectly (except the girth which was too small - this horse is fat). I then took the-horse-which-wasnt-Twistie for a ride and it was full of energy, shied a few times at things which weren't there but did not buck once. The-horse-which-wasnt-Twistie went forward when I asked and even chased a school bus up the road. After this ride I took the-horse-which-wasnt-Twistie home and gave her a bath then let her loose on Jan's front lawn. the-horse-which-wasnt-Twistie still had enough energy to trot and canter around trying to get poor old Tammy to join in the game. I think I may have to cut down on Twistie's food a little.

So now to the topic up for debate. This debate took place as a series of sms's to Emma. I wrote: In tissue culture it says that the new plants are clones. I dont think so. Thats like saying that when you chop legs off a starfish and it grows them back it is a clone of the original starfish. In both cases you take part of the organism, let it grow into a complete organism and throw away what you dont want.
Emma replied: It is a clone because you end up with multiple individuals with the same genetic makeup - thats all it means by a clone.
Now I thought this was a rather serious response to my light hearted philosophy so I replied with: Just think about it. Im not confused Im just debating. I you chopped off my arm and my arm grew a new body we would call it a clone of Tori. However, if you chopped off arm and I grew a new arm I would still just be me. It all depends on what is cut and what grows back.

So there it is my little debate about clones. It all comes down to the fact that my arm in itself is made up of cells which are living by their own rights and do not necessarily require the rest of me to exist. My thoughts for today. I suppose I should get back to studying my cell bio notes and preparing for the exam.