Ask Ms. Jessica Issue 40 – Mitosis Madness

(The content for Ask Ms. Jessica comes from real questions from real people sent to AskMsJessica@gmail.com)

Dear Ms. Jessica -

I have some questions concerning mutations where someone splits into two or more copies of themselves. Not necessarily about how the mutation happens, but more about what happens after the mutation is complete.

I can think of two scenarios for duplication/mitosis: One scenario where the two resulting bodies share a single consciousness and one where they don't. If they do share a single consciousness, are they still considered to be a single person in the eyes of the law or for medical purposes? Are there any loopholes that they could potentially exploit? And if they don't share a single consciousness, do they just get treated like normal twins? Would they be considered to be siblings? Does the "new" person get issued a birth certificate or a social security number even though they weren't "born" in the traditional sense? Would the two people have the same fingerprints as well as the same DNA?

Also, I assume that the most common type of this mutation is one person splitting into two bodies. But has anyone ever split into three or four bodies? How far could something like that theoretically go?

Thanks

Ah Mitosis. There’s still not a lot known for this type of mutation, but there are some patterns.

When a person splits, the first thing that is done is we check to see things that happen to one body effect the other. Changes in blood chemicals, hormones, thoughts, so on. There are very rigorous tests to see just how far someone has “split.”

Simply put, if anything, mental or physical, occurring to one body affects the other somehow, then they are considered a single entity. They have the same rights as, say, a conjoined person and are considered similarly. If the two bodies are completely independent then they are treated like completely separate people because, well, they are.

As for whether they are considered siblings, they are usually considered part of the same family, if only because they are genetically. Whether or not they want to consider themselves siblings is really a matter of their own family dynamic. The law doesn’t particularly care who is whose sibling outside of, say, emergency contacts or whatnot. They would still both be considered their parents’ child in the eyes of the law in terms of dependency, but there aren’t a whole lot of areas of law that care if you are siblings or not.

They would both keep the same birth certificate, but when you mutate you get a certificate of mutation that describes how you mutate and the details, just in case it should come up in a medical or legal context. In this case, the certificate of mutation would describe how they split and how intendant they are. If they are two separate beings, they would be assigned two new social security numbers (this is important since they are, essentially, different from the person they once were.)

They would not have the same fingerprints though. Even identical twins, even clones do not have the same fingerprints. Fingerprints are made unique as someone develops. The same would be true for a mutant who has undergone mitosis. In fact, both bodies’ fingerprints would be different than the original because they would be subject to different stresses while their fingers were forming. In fact, whenever ANYONE mutates they have to get their fingerprints taken again just in case. Mutation unfortunately comes with a lot of paperwork.

There are some weird legal loopholes. For example, there was a case where someone committed a crime and then split into two people. She couldn’t be tried because these two new women were, essentially, completely different people. People were outraged at the verdict but, that’s just how things are. Fringe cases like this are so rare though, it would be folly to change the entire system based on them.

And as for how much people can split, the sky’s the limit. People can split into three, four, five, and even more bodies. Although remember, mass is a thing and conservation of mass, usually, still has to be obeyed. There was once a case of someone splitting into 1,000 different bodies, but they were all extremely tiny. She eventually used her swarm (she had one mind) to sort of reconstruct her old body using her tiny bodies.

I couldn’t imagine moving 1,000 copies of myself all at once!

Dr. Jessica Park

AskMsJessica@gmail.com