[CatWChainsaw]

"Why be ethical? (Asking as a serious question)"

This explains pretty much everything.

[Traubenfuchs]

For "real science", like from within a university, it makes sense, as you must placate (beat) the ethics commission (they can generally be considered adversarial to research).

For this private kind of fun science, there is no need for ethics, unless one commits a crime or fears loss of personal reputation.

[tchaffee]

Maybe better asked as "why use your ethics"?

There is little consensus on a broad range of ethics.