Men, like Sharp, who have done hundreds of vasectomies, say the operation commonly removes the inclination to masturbation. Masturbation is, as a rule, a moral condition, but it can, like alcoholism, come to have a large physical element. Idiots almost unexceptionally have this vice, and in them there is no morality possible. If by vasectomy they can be cured of this vice, which injures their health and is a social indecency and a source of sin in observers, the operation would be licit in their case. When the patient is morally responsible vasectomy would not be licit, as there is no adequation between a physical evil like sterilization and a moral vice. There are cases of pathological sexual erethism which are so violent that the patients must be put into strait-jackets to prevent constant masturbation. The semen of such patients is usually devoid of spermatozoa. If the patient is confined in a strait-jacket he will die, and vasectomy, according to Sharp, will quiet such a man. Vasectomy would be permissible in these circumstances. The question has arisen in the case of a sane masturbator who is neurotic, weak-willed, and a confirmed addict to his vice, whether or not his vasa might be tied off by ligatures, temporarily, with the intention of removing the ligature later and restoring function. I think not. Even temporary sterilization is sterilization, a grave mutilation, while it lasts, and the condition is really moral fundamentally, and therefore not a fitting object for physical remedies. When vasectomy is done by the State, it is done either as a penal or as a prophylactic measure. As a general statement we can say the State in certain conditions has the right to kill or mutilate a criminal in defence of the social order; but even then any punishment, to be justifiable, must be effective and necessary, and it has to be either reformative, exemplary, or reparative in regard to the crime for which it is inflicted. Capital punishment and mutilation are effective usually, and are necessary for the preservation of society. The natural law permits the State to preserve itself against the unjust encroachments of individuals by curtailing their rights in so far as that curtailment is effective and necessary: since the natural law requires the existence of civil society, it must allow what is necessary for the preservation of that society. There is no question here of a good end justifying evil means; the means which otherwise would be evil in these conditions become good. Homicide and mutilation are not mere killing or mere maiming, but unjust killing or unjust maiming. Killing or maiming is not intrinsically wrong under all circumstances, as lying, blasphemy, and some other crimes are; nevertheless, as a punishment by maiming, vasectomy is ordinarily wrong, and therefore a law making it an ordinary mode of punishment for certain whole classes of criminals, or all criminals, is unjust.