[Captain Rhino]

No matter how many advanced degrees in biology, etc. they have, this is Beavis and Butthead loose, alone, and without adult supervision in the genetics lab.

Just look at the concluding sentence in the article if you have any doubts.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

No matter how many advanced degrees in biology, etc. they have, this is Beavis and Butthead loose, alone, and without adult supervision in the genetics lab.

There is no adult supervision to be had, following your analogy. The only alternative is blind chance and random mutation. Research like this has the potential to make our lives and the lives of our descendants vastly better. It also has the potential to do harm, as all technology has always had - but this has never been a good reason to give up technology and scientific progress.