Content around the end of the mission Gentleman Callers.

Spoiler

I'm curious did you go so far that you poisoned their elixir machine with rat disease as the old lady wanted you to do?
Because I have a hard time deciding why I should do it?
If you look at the table next to the elixir machine, there is a "Next Batch" list with families on it and so on, meaning
they would be one of those who would get this rat disease in their elixir that is ment to keep them well? That sounds bit evil to me.

What do you think?

If you're going for the low-chaos Clean Hands playthrough, poisoning the distillery counts as a lethal
action. I actually avoided Granny Rags' sidequests altogether during the Overseer mission.... will do them
in my high chaos playthrough.

I did get Low Chaos by poisoning the distillery on a previous game, so I'm not sure why you would think that is a lethal action.

You can still get low chaos, but it negates Clean Hands.

I did it for the rune on my first playthrough.

I decided to start from the beginning again after reaching mission 3 because of some choices I've made with my supernatural powers that I didn't like.

But what I wanted to say was, after going so far that I was ready to put the rat poison into the elixir machine, I stopped cus I saw the note on the table, and I read the note.
After reading the note and understanding that this elixir they make here is likely to be shipped off to poor families and others, thinkin' I would cause them to get the rat disease, ehm.

No, so I just didn't put the rat poison in and left the place as I was never there, *stealthy*
(I like how they put this on us, give us this choice, we have to decide, were our moral is)

Causing more rat disease = gaining power (supernatural power)
Not giving people rat disease = no profit, but in your heart you know what you did was right? I think that's me.

Yeah, I think the good thing to do is avoid her quests.

Well the first one wasn't so bad, just put out 3 bandits with choke or sleep darts.

Pretty darn sure you don't get chaos for poising it OR that it counts as a kill.

After all, they turn into weepers, they don't flat-out die.

Logically, judging from the next mission dialogue, Slackjaw found out that there was something wrong long before any shipments happened when his own men started showing symptoms. Since the un-plagued elixir Slackjaw makes is watered down anyway, I figured that poising the distillary was doing the world a favor.

Well, in the end.. it's the bandits that sell these elixirs that protect people form the plague, poor families.. So doing what the old lady wants you to do, is.. evil.. you do evil.. if you do!

I started that quest for Granny and went all the way into the Distillery, got up to the still itself and then decided against poisoning it in the end. It just seemed like the game was going to great lengths to point out that doing so is going to kill innocent people, and since I'm trying to play this as the 'savior to the city' on the first time through, it felt completely out of character for Corvo. The deciding factor was the ledger you find on the desk next to the still, which lists NPCs and families who get the elixir from the Distillery - basically saying "you're about to infect and kill all of these innocent people." This was the latest clue that Granny isn't some harmlessly daft old lady and oh may just be the sinister evil kind of crazy.

http://youtu.be/Hr_7wN-SKuc?hd=1 (Video)

Nghh, just got locked out of final Sokolov Painting because I skipped Granny Rags

....well, something for a lethal playthrough, then.

But question: can you do just the first part, and then NOT poison the distillery, and be able to get to the Granny vs Slackjaw bit in the Flooded District?

I did. First time through the game. Subdued the 3 thugs, ignored the second Granny mission, and found her and Slackjaw later in the sewers.

Thanks Granite! This will have to wait for next playthrough, but at least I have confirmation