furashgf said:

But I would not be THAT sure. The only point where I found a rather legitimate use for cloning was in regard to the production of "spare parts" for Servitors. I never found any notion in the fluff that allows organ clones for "real humans".

To the contrary, aside from said servitore-spare-part cloning I found was "vat grown muscle" and other adapations. And LOTS of sources where cloning was not well spoken of

I might be misremembering it. I (thought) I remembered one of the characters getting a cybernetic hand while he waited for a vat-grown one (one of the Ravenor books). However, if it's not in any of the 40K books then I'm probably off.

There isn't anything preventing this. Astartes get clone organs all the time. Getting you hands on the service would be the issue. I wouldn't even put a price on it, either you are going to have to do someone (a genetor of heretek) a favour to get this, OR, it is just availalbe after a set ammount of time due to your Inquisitors influence.

The only reference I've seen to anything like this was in the Eisenhorn short story "Missing in Action." The short paragraph is: "Lund cost me my hand. A hand for a hand. They gave me a prosthetic on Sameter. I never used it. For two years, I made do with a fused stump. Surgeons on Messina finally gave me a functional graft." This does not specifically say it is a cloned hand, and could be read to mean a hand from a corpse grafted in place.

I know in the horus heresy series there is mention of how a child lost a leg and the imperium doctors simply had a new leg regrown like it was nothing at all. This proves that at one time man kind had the technology. The issue as stated before lies with fining someone who has access to said technology and the price to use it. I believe in the last chancers novel series a commissar loses his arm and then when you see him next he has it back. The main character points out his shock that he has an arm again.

Cloning technology is certainly available.

The Chaos Marine Fabius Bile even cloned Horus only to have the clone destroyed by Abbaddon!

Many servitors are genetically-engineered, vat-grown sub-human clones created by the Adeptus Mechanicus.

The Space Marines seem to use it regularly, although among the Raven Guard its described as 'forbidden zygote acceleration and cloning processes to more rapidly replenish the Chapter's numbers', so its use would seem somewhat ambiguous.

This ambiguity is supported by the Death Korps of Krieg who have been given 'special dispensation' to use cloning technology to replenish their Imperial Guard stocks.

The Afriel Strain appear to be an entire abhuman race created by cloning by the AdMech, and subject to a disrupted Warp presence that makes them some of the least lucky individuals alive.

So i think its seems that cloning is typically a very dangerous and rare process, but one that is available by imperial sanction (although how and by what authority isn't clear).

I'd suggest cloning is therefore restricted to 'Ascension grade' characters and only by some special dispensation, boon or favour from a high ranking authority.

Cloning technology is certainly available, but the question is if somone could have a limb or organ replaced by a vat-grown copy. Growing a hand, eye, or kidney & implanting it in a "normal" person is a bit different from growing a "blank" person & chopping him up to make a servitor. Even the Afriel strain are complete organisms. I know that in Star Wars it's possible, but it's an illegal & controversial procedure. If cloned limb replacement is possible (yet prohibitivly expensive) in 40K, then why do we see even the extremely wealthy & powerful decked out in gold-plated prosthetics? I would imagine that the greatest show of wealth would be to not require mechanical parts at all. Along the same train of thought are replacement bodies. The Imperium has a lot of rejuvenation techniques for the rich. Why not clone yourself & have your brain moved into the new you? I'm inclined to say that cloned replacement parts are lost technology. It doesn't "feel" 40K to me!

Alpha Chaos 13 said:

"...gave me a functional graft."

Oh that just gets creepier the more I think about it. Thanks for sharing.

I would guess that cloning is extremely rare and all but lost technology. I would also imagine that it is rather unstable and the clone bodies degrade at a faster rate (Dolly the Sheep and CC the cat - both cloned animals suffered from an early onset of arthritis).

I also think that cloning would require force maturation that would rish mutation and corruption. So although it may be possible I think it is mostly impractical.

With most nobility and the wealthy having an ornate bionic implant is a show of how rich the person is and hold certain bragging rights and a few good tales to tell (the more exaggerated the better)

I remember reading fluff back in the days of 2nd Ed. 40k that cloning was possible but controlled by the AM. Since their core belief was metal>flesh, they really looked down on people getting cloned limbs instead of cybernetics. Which does make a lot of sense, the techpriests send men to their deaths for fixing their own vehicles. Don't know if the fluff has been reconned though.

I remember one of the old Shadowrun books (Shadowtech I think), where one of the doctors was talking IC, about how they grew bioware. That they don't grow just the needed parts, but a whole person... sort of. The body that the organ, or whatever, is harvested from develops 'wrong', because the medical techs and doctors are only concerned with the bits they specifically wanted, and make sure to skew everything in the direction of its development.

And I doubt they use bits from corpses, flesh tends to degrade far too fast (relatively) to allow that sort of thing.

Well when we think cloned body parts are not that common in imperial society it is wrong to think that the main reason for cybernetics is the loose of an body part. Most people in imperial society use cybernetics the enhance their possibilities in one way or another. So I think it is not uncommon to replace total healthy body parts for better performance and here cloning parts would not make any sense.
So through this and the influence and paradigm of the AM we have a huge cybernetics industry within the Imperium. Then of course if someone losses an body part due to accident, battle or sickness. I would is much easier and cheaper to get an cybernetic replacement which is available everywhere than a cloned one. (which would additionally would be much more time consuming.) So cloned parts are available but for the most people not very reasonable.
For other fields like mass servitor production or the production of war beasts (Krieg horses) for the imperial guard it would of course be different.

I don't think most Imperial citizens are keen on hacking off bits of themselves, just for added performance. Mostly. 40K isn't big in to Transhumanism on the wider scale. Oh certainly, there is the AdMech, Astartes, and Chaos, but beyond those three big factions, where it's part of the core concept (all for different reasons and done in different ways), you don't see too much of it.

But by far I agree that cybernetics would be more common, and easier to get, than cloned replacements.

An interesting thought that just occured to me, but due to their specialized field, Space Marine apothecaries would probably have not only the expertise, but maybe even the equipment, available to produce cloned replacement bodyparts. Ironically, because of the way their enhanced physique works, and the vast complexity of it, there'd be practically no reason for them to use that method over standard bionic replacement (since not only do you have to grow an arm, but an arm with tons of extra muscle and reinforced bones, just to name a few).

Blood Pact said:

Agreed, except that in the grimdark future of 40K flavor is more important than science! Realistic? No. Fitting to the setting? Yes!

If we are willing to get creative with the rules, there may be another solution in BC:

"Any power with a range of Self can be cast upon an ally, painting arcane symbols

upon his flesh or armour. The normal duration of the Focus Power Test does not

apply—it instead takes six rounds to manifest the power, at the end of which the

Focus Power Test is made, with an additional –10 penalty. If this is successful,

the power takes effect, though all the power’s normal effects are applied to the ally

rather than the sorcerer. The recipient must spend the actions to sustain the power’s

effect, though all other effects of sustaining a power affect the sorcerer."

Combine this with Regenerate - Biomancy, which states: "Regenerate can eventually

regrow lost limbs and organs. Each Round this power is active, you remove 1d5 points

of Damage (removing Critical Damage first) and have all levels of Fatigue removed.

Once all Damage is removed, you begin to regrow lost organs, limbs, and so on."

While Profane Symbols is an option for heretic wyrds, I would expect decent

Emperor-fearing psykers to have something similar at hand.

If not, at least some radical inquisitors will know the trick...

My personal view of cloned limbs would be along "takes a few weeks and has similar

price & availability as Good quality bionic replacement". Magos biologis of AM have

the means, if you're willing to pay their rates. Or they owe you favours.

An inquisitor or a vain Rogue Trader might even have a few cryocases full of cloned

organs in case he needs a replacement somewhere along the way.

The Psyker-regrowing trick also works with Ascension. It has an Ascended Psy-Power "my Will, known" iirc, which lets a Psyker take control like its his own of a willing targets body. Biomancer Psyker takes control of the cripple´s body and uses Regenerate.

I forget where I read it, but vat grown clone limbs are extremely common in the imperium. For people they believe are even worth fixing.... Also you guys seem to forget, technology is ridiculously advanced in 40, they just prefer to use manpower because it's cheaper.

Lots of people tend to forget that. It gets overshadowed by te general GrimDark and the fact that al lot of the most visible technology is apparently simple (people are used to using hover-cars, teleporters, and other Star Trek/Wars style stuff as a visible measuring stick of the overall empire. Forgetting things like how the best tech is reserved for the rich and powerful few, and that with such a huge empire, there is quite a variance in tech level of the member worlds).