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I read it in my high school biology class years ago when we were learning about genetics and cloning but I don't know if it was part of our curriculum or just a passion of my teacher. I think I remember my teacher saying it had been published around the time Dolly was cloned (1996) but I could be wrong.

The story began with a description of a room and described pictures of a girl with her parents at different ages, i.e. as a child and an adult. Then the story kinda talks about the dynamics of a teenage girl and her parents. I think the girl got into some kind of trouble and her parents were debating re-cloning her or something. The story kinda built up and ended on the fact that the girl was cloned and the parents had gotten through a few clones of their kid before this point.

I'm not too certain about this next part but I think the mother was written to be a bit hysterical since I don't think her daughter did anything crazy for them to consider cloning her (I think she got a tattoo or piercing but this part is so vague I'm not sure) and that might've been the point since it was supposed to be some futuristic scenario when re-cloning is easier than actually working on family relationships. I think the girl's name was Diana or Dolly but I can't confirm.

I read it close to a decade ago and I think I tried to find it at the time (since we weren't allowed to take the scanned sheet of the story home) and I believe I found it in a sci-fi short story textbook or a short story published compilation/journal or something like that.

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  • It's kinda vague in my head and I was a little too young to fully understand subtext but from what I remember, they didn't really discuss disposal. Also, I don't think the kids would have any kind of speeding up process. I vaguely remember the mother discussing how raising a young kid would be easier than a teenager and wanted to do that again. I also think it was her that pushed the husband to get a new clone baby since she was frustrated with the kid and the husband was conversing back and forth until he agreed and then it ended.
    – PurpleBellflower
    Commented Dec 8, 2021 at 6:05

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I believe this is "To Cuddle Amy" by Nancy Kress. According to this link, :

The Campbells had this only daughter, Amy, now fourteen. Her behavior is wild and beyond control. The police had come to warn too.

and eventually:

“I’ll throw her out tonight,” he told Allison, “and call the clinic in the morning.”

I originally read this in Years best SF #6

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    Yes, I have that anthology and this is definitely the story. Damn, you beat me to it :-)
    – John Rennie
    Commented Dec 8, 2021 at 10:37
  • I think that's it! Thank you so much!
    – PurpleBellflower
    Commented Dec 9, 2021 at 12:37

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