How do we deal with major ethical issues within questions?

Question

With questions such as Is there any options to keep someone awake against their will? I voted to close this question because as @Jan points out in the comments, the purpose of the question may be innocuous, but someone else may see and use the answer (even the name of a drug) for unsavoury reasons.

I think there are ethical issues with this question which cannot be adequately addressed other than question closure.

I don't want us to start going down the road of censorship of questions based on subjects we feel unethical as such. There is also a question concerning euthanasia for example (If heroin overdose is so mortal, would it be a reasonable way to do euthanasia?) and whilst it is illegal in most countries, Switzerland for example does allow for it so we can't just close this one on ethical grounds.

However, due to public safety ethics, should we close questions like my prime example for this reason? On the other hand, with the euthanasia question, a drug suggestion for euthanasia is mentioned. Should that be edited out for ethical reasons and put something like

... instead of the currently approved drug(s) for euthanasia.

How should we deal with questions like this and what criteria should we set?

Answer 1

I'm not sure where to draw the line as a site policy, but I am pretty sure that we should never help anyone engage in non-consensual activities. So I'm closing the question but I think this discussion needs to continue.

Answer 2

I think we should close questions like this when they have no medical or research purpose, and especially when the information could be harmful.

An example of similar past questions (I forget now if this was here, or perhaps at Biology.SE) have been questions by writers involving date rape drugs; the author may truly want the answer for a story, but A) it's not really possible to verify that is indeed their motivation, B) the information could be easily abused by others, and C) it doesn't even matter anyways: you can write whatever you want in your book or design whatever world you want as a DM. Call it "juice of the ____ tree" if you want.