I could easily initiate or participate in cold blooded murder under the right circumstances, then peacefully go to sleep that evening. It's the Dietrich Bonhoeffer question: is murder ever justified? By the time the German pastor and theologian answered that question for himself enough to participate in assassination attempts on Adolph Hitler, it was way too late, and scores of millions of "innocent" people were killed.
But kill a rare hominin in order to prove its existence to a cabal of hard headed people who should be actively researching the question themselves, and who would turn right around after you did so and serve you up to the lawyer class, take your specimen, and pompously profess all their knowledge about it as if they were on board all along?
No way. Those guys can kiss my back pants pocket.