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Should Prostitution Be Legal?

Why the red light should get the green light

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by Mary Noble

Senior Editor t

Image: The Intrepid Traveller

It's time to legalize prostitution, proclaims an op-ed in today's New York Daily News. Lending the piece extra authenticity, it was penned by the self-named "King of All Pimps" Jason Itzler, who is currently serving 4 years in jail.
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Is there a case for legalizing prostitution?

Comments (view in Forum)

  • u
    Presleyc5
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    Get your facts straight, legal prostitution has an extremely low rate of stds. They are tested on a weekly basis, which is mandated by law. To whether it is immoral and degrading, that is your own opinion not a fact. Please do not state it as such.
  • dances-weebles
    !
    'moral'?'immoral'? by whose standards? eacn and every person has their own private set of 'moral values' they are as individual as are finger prints, and they can't be taught, bought or sold or found in any book. that makes the idea that prostitution is a 'moral' issue a non argument.
  • LogicNeeded
    !
    Morality is subjective. For instance, I think that wishing eternal torture on people who just want to get laid is a pretty sick and immoral mindset, but I'm not going to try to make that illegal. Also, it's common knowledge that by making it legal, it would reduce STD's.
  • u
    fluffer
    !
    Immoral? Ok then let's make it illegal for a woman to accept an expensive gift then have sex with a man an hour later. And if you want to comment on the STD rate, at least back it up with some facts not opinion if you want to be taken seriously.
  • u
    LaserWhite
    !
    You mean the entire United States becoming a Las Vegas? wow, we wouldn't have to worry about the next war; we would have to worry about our demise from our unlimited indulgences in our own vices.
  • u
    LaserWhite
    !
    aren't there enough taxes in place already. just give the govt more reasons to spend, spend, spend; its not like this tax would be applied to existing debt. plus the costs of healthcare would probably double with the increase in std. anyone with half a brain knows the govt cant run any organization, much more this one.
  • u
    Isaac-Asimov
    !
    Time and time again it's been said, evidenced, and studied that among prostitutes plying their trade in a legal manner, i.e. working for legal brothels, or just following the law around them, that the STD ratio is very, very low. Mandated testing along with very strict rules and regulations on condoms makes it that way.

    To try and use the "BUT THE STD RATES WOULD GO THROUGH THE ROOF" argument is moot. It's a null and void sentiment, because all you're doing is restating ignorance that has already been proven wrong.
  • o
    Stratton
    !
    The current prostitution laws discriminate against poor women who have fewer options for putting food on the table, and force these women into the abusive hands of pimps and drug dealers. If you are an upper middle class woman you can prostitute yourself all you like and never face any legal penalty, provided you do it behind closed doors and not on the streets. Furthermore, if the person who pays you films you doing it, it's legal because now you're an adult film star.

    I think prostitution is sad but I think a woman has a right to make a living using her body if she chooses to.
  • u
    SophieB
    !
    These arguments are looking at prostitution as a business deal between two equal participants, but put yourself in the place of the prostitute. Think for a moment and ask yourself this question.... What circumstance would be required, how bad would your life have to be, before you were willing to let anyone, absolutely anyone, do anything to your body he wished? Think of someone you might cross the street to avoid. Now, what would it take before you would be willing to perform oral acts on that person? Now imagine giving yourself to person after person, night after night. Prostitution is not a business transaction; it is an act of desperation by women and children on the street who have no other option.
  • tiffany
    !
    Not really, Sophie b. Have you not seen the news. That "soccer mom" was running an escort business. Not becAuse she needed the money either. And the girls that worked for her weren't poor girls that were chosen when she saw them walking the streets either. These women came from good places. They just wanted to make a living using their body. Not every prostitute is like the ones you see on law and order, honey.
  • o
    Stratton
    !
    Sophie, what you say is certainly true for some women. However, not every prostitute is required to let someone do "anything they want" to them. Many of them are not desperate at all. I believe that legalization would give the women you are talking about more control over their bodies and lives than they have now.
  • freethinker
    !
    Yes with proper controls such as frequent health check some kind of licence and a place to go not on the streets. But work at of certain licenced places such as nonalacholic clubs ect.
  • LogicNeeded
    !
    It's their bodies, and if they want to sell their bodies for sex, it shouldn't be a crime, as there is no victim. Also, if prostitution was to be made into a business, prostitutes wouldn't have to worry about dealing with dangerous clients and pimps, and the clients wouldn't have to worry about catching an STD.
  • u
    SophieB
    !
    That's the point. Nobody WANTS to sell their body. Just consider for a moment... What kind of circumstance would it take before you would be willing to let anybody, regardless of age, appearance, hygiene, health, etc., do anything to your body he wanted...in any orifice? And then the next in line, and the next, and the next? Nobody wants that. It is a choice borne only out of desperation and hopelessness. Legalizing prostitution is tantamount to legalizing degradation, oppression, and abuse.
  • LogicNeeded
    !
    True, some people do it because they're desperate, but did you know that some people like to have sex, and there's no crime in allowing someone to make money off of doing something that they enjoy? For those who are desperate, would you rather them sell their bodies in a hostile environment where they could end up as just another dead hooker on the streets, or have them work in a safe environment?

    Bottom line, people are still going to do things that you don't like even if they are illegal, and they are going to do them much more dangerously than if they were legal.
  • ir0nw0lfe
    !
    NO. Prostitution is am immoral crime that preys upon the poor and the desperate. It's obvious from some of the responses that many of you have never known a prostitute or listened to their back story which almost always involves a history of addiction and sexual/physical abuse. This is not Pretty Woman with Julia Roberts. No little girl or boy says I want to be a whore when I grow up! Just because we can't quantify the emotional damage doesn't make prostitution a victimless crime. The moral fiber of a civilized society should not erode to cater to the basest desires of the weakest among us. It should seek to uplift those without hope whose self image has tarnished to the point that their own intrinsic value as human beings has become a commodity to be traded for coin. Every prostitute is someone's child. Don't they deserve better than to be taken advantage of for what they offer instead of empowered to what they can become? Prostitution stains all of us long after the physical act.
  • u
    blueblue2
    !
    I would never on my brokest day fiddle with a stanger, let alone for $. and It sickens me to say it this way but..... If you can sell your blood, Hair, organs, and other things, for the gradifacation of the recipiant. why not Sex Too? Have A lobby where there's a Dr/Nurse to do a Phyiscal exam on every customer (everytime) and have attractors checked daily as well.
    and while were at it, they might as well make a video and sell them a video of there experiance, so they'll never forget the time they sank low enough to get hard-up for some taint in a sex clinic. hell might as well sell sperm too for a discount. man this is a discusting issue.
  • tiffany
    !
    Well, Shauna. Hate to tell you but you are wrong. Most prostitutes do get tested. If they didn't, they wouldn't be a prostitute for long bc then people would know they had something. And the world maybe going to hell, but I'm sure you are one of the mAny that's going with it. Prostitution being legalized isn't necessarily a bad thing. They will do it anyways regardless of whether it is or not. But if legalized, then it makes it safer for the girls doing it and will give regulations for it like frequent mandatory std and drug testing. As the article states, prostitution is an age old part of world culture. It has never went away and probably never will. Might as well male the best of a bad situation.
  • o
    ComeToJESUS777
    !
    No, it should NOT be legalized. It completely perverts EVERYTHING God (JESUS) created sex for. Sex was created for a man and his wife. It was created to be a beautiful thing. Legalizing prostitution would be a total abomination, you can't legalize an 'abomination' and get away with it. May JESUS have mercy!!!
  • cherry
    !
    Fornicate fornicate.
    Who gave us this sex so great?
    Yea God!
    As I do the in and out,
    I have oft been known to shout:
    Oh God!

    So many men; so little time.
  • ir0nw0lfe
    !
    You need to re-read the story of Jesus and the woman at the well. What about Mary Magdalene? What about mercy and compassion? Read my post. I'm against prostitution. I'm also against bruising the fruit. None are so righteous as to condemn his brother except out of love.
  • cherry
    !
    God did not say that. Some eunuch slave scribe wrote the rules in Leviticus. God said "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." I imagine that lets you out, Lovey.

    In fact, Jesus said: "He who beats his brother must answer for it to the court; he who sneers at him will answer for it in the fires of Hell." You might want to get yourself some fireproof undies.
  • u
    pete98146
    !
    I'm 60% no/40% yes on this one. Not an easy choice. But I'm going with a no vote because there is a growing split between men and women in industrialized nations. Porn and legalized prostitution give easy sexual satisfaction to men. We need to find a way to get men and women together instead of approving another avenue to grow the sexes apart. We can only look to Japan and see the high rates of unmarried/low birth rates to realize there is a problem.
  • u
    Tolpuddle
    !
    It has been legal in other Nations for generations with very few problems plus the prostitutes pay taxes. What's the downside beyond some will be ticked that someone is doing something they don't approve of?
  • LeslieAbi
    !
    For all those out there worried about their marriages and children that is a personal problem. If you're worried your husband/wife will cheat on you because it's now legal chances are he/she was doing it before. Treat this with your kids just as you would drugs and alcohol, explain to them it is wrong and immoral and they shouldn't participate. Raise your kids correctly and this wouldn't be an issue. I believe it should be legal in order to make it safer for the women who are going to do it anyway and for the others who pay for their services. Not to mention there would be a huge "sin tax" on this and the government would make a killing maybe lessening taxes on us. bahahaha yeah right!
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