A recently developed technique that might eventually produce facsimiles of human embryonic stem cells from skin cells was lauded by President Bush and the Catholic Church as an ethical alternative to using human embryos for research. But it “opens a whole new can of worms” — the possibility of creating chimera humans — one researcher says.

The idea is that you could borrow skin cells from a living or dead person (Albert Einstein jumped to the mind of the concerned scientist) to give your child a genetic leg up.

Overlooked, according to Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Advanced Cell Technology in this article in the Independent, is the potential for making baby Einsteins.

“If we had a few skin cells from Albert Einstein, or anyone else in the world, you could have a child that is say 10 per cent or 70 per cent Albert Einstein by just injecting a few of their cells into an embryo,” Lanza said. “It’s unethical and unsafe, but someone may be doing it today.”