Ok, perhaps that title is a little strong. But still, I have real worry about court cases like these.
I've been out of science research for a long time, but I still have fond memories of working in a lab with really bright people. So I don't worry so much about mad scientists taking people's cell samples and doing big evil with them. I do worry about big corporations, more and more often the backers of university research, deciding to make millions off of some gene or aspect of an individual, and preventing that person from having any control how her genetic material is used.

Recently, a family member who is faculty at a major state university went to a President's (of the university) party. The President talked of the growing financial relationships between the university and big corporations...happily. The Republicans are busy spending all the money once devoted to research and education on a war we'll never win, and scientists and researchers are increasingly driven to study what will make Pfizer more money, instead of what will cure cancer (they are not the same thing). Meanwhile, the South Koreans, Germans and Japanese are busy using stem cells to come with all sorts of treatments for disease, not that any of us will have the health care to afford them should they share those results with us.

I used to feel positve about university research projects, but of late, it seems more and more of them are devoted to making some large corporation more money. Allowing our research environment to deteriorate in this way is like eating seed corn; without far ranging research, our native industries lose their edge, and thus become less competitive and less forceful engines of our economy. There are other costs. But corporate control of science is always a Bad Thing.