There was a very creepy s.f. story about a woman who changed from one skin into another each night (she only had two, which she rotated between). Someone decided to steal one of the skins to see what would happen and the result was not pretty, but very sad. What if you welded all her parts together if that would keep the little pieces from falling out (spawning her into a prop or some such thing that the whizzes seem to know how to do).