May I end a relationship because I disapprove?

Usually, yes, while honestly stating your boundary and honouring existing promises, care duties and fair procedures.

What if the person refuses advice?

Absent urgent danger or injury to others, a competent adult retains room to err. You can keep support available without taking over.

Is public criticism always coercive?

No. Evidence, scale, purpose and power matter. Correcting a public claim is different from mobilising punishment against a private life.

On Liberty

What may you do when you disapprove of someone’s life?

Respect for liberty is not indifference. Mill leaves room for advice, criticism, non-participation and natural consequences, while rejecting coercion justified only as “for your own good”.

Considerations to aid his judgment, exhortations to strengthen his will, may be offered to him; but he himself is the final judge.On Liberty, Chapter IV: Limits to Social Authority

The direct answer: care, explain, advise and set your own boundaries

Mill’s principle is not “never concern yourself with anyone”. You may ask, share evidence, describe consequences, disagree and decline voluntary participation. What you may not do, merely because you think you know their good better, is turn advice into punishment, humiliation or substituted decision-making.

See the passage in Chapter IV.

First ask whether this is choice or injury

Deception, coercion, violated rights or a broken definite duty move the case beyond private conduct. If the principal consequences fall on a competent adult, another person’s anxiety, offence or conflicting values do not by themselves justify compulsion.

A conversation that leaves room for freedom

Ask whether advice is welcome. Use checkable facts, not a verdict on character. Name the consequence you fear and admit what you do not know. Then return the decision to its owner. If your relationship is directly affected, state your commitments, resources and limits without using public shame as leverage.

You may choose your own participation

Liberty does not require approval, funding or involvement. You may take distance, end voluntary cooperation, or decline to entrust an important task to someone you have good reason not to trust. Choosing your association differs from recruiting a crowd to punish a private life.

Where “for your own good” goes wrong

Outsiders often possess general assumptions, while the person knows the particulars of their situation. Coercion can discredit good advice and turn disagreement into a struggle for power. Use the harm-principle framework to test harm, duty, consent and proportionality first.