Subsidized sterilization.

Drug addicts across the UK are being offered money to be sterilised by an American charity.

Project Prevention is offering to pay £200 to any drug user in London, Glasgow, Bristol, Leicester and parts of Wales who agrees to be operated on.

The first person in the UK to accept the cash is drug addict “John” from Leicester who says he “should never be a father”.

Probably everyone would agree that a better contract would be one that offers payment for regular use of contraception, rather than irreversible sterilization.  Sterilization is probably a “second-best” because it is easier to monitor and enforce.

But it takes sides in the addict’s conflicting preferences over time.  He is trading off money today versus children in the future.  For some, that’s what makes it the right second-best.  For others that’s what makes it exploitation.

Here is more.