Cash for vasectomy....

[Existentialist]

Thanks thesummerqueen. You ask if it's unethical to say to a couple of alcoholics you know, "look, if you're not willing to put away the bottle, you should at least get sterilized." I don't know. It depends how well you know them and in what capacity. If you're a counsellor in a community alcohol service, then if you said what you're proposing then yes, it probably would be extremely unethical and infact I wouldn't be surprised if you were disciplined for saying it, I'd support that. If on the other hand they're your close friends whom you've known since childhood then go ahead and say it. They can choose not to be your friend any more, but at least you'll have had your say.

Ethics come into play when there is a degree of power imbalance between the parties If you're on a good salary and you offered your alcoholic friend £200 to get sterilised then I'd say that's pretty unethical. If you and your friend are both extremely poor and you offer each other £200 to get sterilised then I'd say that's up to them.

You're right I think the analogy you quote is imperfect. Most analogies are.

I'm not against incentives per se. I'm against unethical bribes.

You mention eugenics. I didn't say the nazis invented eugenics. The problem is that eugenics has become overly associated with population control at the level of social policy. You ask if it's wrong if people choose to adopt rather risk passing on a genetic disease. Well no - that's an individual choice, one I'd respect.