So I am pretty dubious of the notion that "organisms in the hands of amateurs could escape and cause outbreaks of incurable diseases or unpredictable environmental damage." There is no greater risk of that than there is of transgenic bacteria escaping from any of the thousands of molecular biology laboratories in our nation. Genetically modified yeast and E. coli are not considered serious biological hazards because the modified strains require special growing conditions -- including selection using antibiotics -- to maintain the modification. Otherwise they revert to just plain old yeast and E. coli.
Actually the more likely negative scenario is that these DIY labs will produce absolutely nothing. If you are a PhD researcher with a lot of practice, you could probably get this stuff to work. But these experiments often fail even with experienced researchers in controlled laboratory settings. The much more likely negative side is that many amateur researchers would have trouble getting their stuff to work and waste their money in the process.
It may be true, but nothing can replace the excitement of learning biology by actually doing it. Many people will be motivated to learn more, and try harder through their failed experiments. Even failures can teach us something!
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