I think that for common insects there is no ethical problem. An insect is a primitive creature, and killing one or two is not a problem. Many more will splat on your windscreen, or get eaten by a Hobby and other predators. So one more is neither here nor there.
As to whether or not they are sentient to any degree, I suspect not, but who knows. My own experience is that insects display simple stereotypical behaviour, with no evidence of intelligence.
Personally I don't like the practise of chilling insects. I have seen at least one picture of a chilled dragonfly win a major UK prize, and to me it is cheating. You are photographing an insect in an artificial environment, possibly posing in an artificial manner. And if the practise catches on, then we will have hoards of copy cat amateur photographers catching insects, some of which might be rare.
Surely, as Dean says, the appeal and challenge of nature photography is to work out techniques to photograph wild creatures in their natural habitat.
Nirofo has intrigued me with his comments. I wonder what sort of things the more competitive get up to?
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