>The researchers say their aim is not to make the insects extinct but to help stop the spread of malaria.

Nothing ever matters less than your, "aim". Intentions are massively overrated. What matters are the actual effects as measured in objective reality. One of the many reasons society is the toilet that it is is because so many judge initiatives and propsals on what they are "intended" to do or what the "aim" of a proposed action is. The Inquisitor who burns you alive because he intends to purify your soul is just as bad as psycho who burns you at the stake because he wants to watch you burn.