Author Marget Peterson Haddix Clones a Plot Twist of Her Own

Double Identity by Margret Peterson Haddix, the author of the popular Shadow Children series, included a new science fiction twist to the plot of this book.  Many readers are familiar with the futuristic third child dilemma faced by Luke Gardner in the book, Among the Hidden, and the six books that followed it.  Double identity was published in 2005, before the last two books of the Shadow Children series.  I wonder if Haddix was sensing the end of her popular series at the time, and was looking for a new angle of science fiction to push a different series for her readers.

Dolly is the famous sheep that was cloned by Roslin Institute in Scotland in 1996.  There was a debate started among the public pertaining to cloning long before this very public event about the ethics of cloning, and the possibility of cloning people. In the book Double Identity, Bethany discovers the reasons behind her parents strange behavior is the result of some scientific research her father has done in the area of cloning humans. Her parents attempt to hide her in the small community where they grew up with Aunt Myrlie, whom she never knew existed. After she is  continually mistaken for her dead sister Elizabeth, receives strange looks from the community members she meets, and recognizing a dark stranger that seems to be following her, Bethany begins to piece together the mystery of her existence. Is it possible her dad was successful in cloning the first human being?

What would be the big deal?  Wouldn't it be fascinating to create a clone of yourself?  Think of the medical advances that could take place.  What if you needed a new organ to stay alive, and there isn't a matching doner? What do you see as the ethical issues of human cloning?  I wonder if it has already been done, but we just don't know about it.  If they can produce a sheep?  Why not a matching sister?