Prostitution should be Legal

Prostitution is a victimless crime. When all goes well (i.e. there is no violence) neither the john nor the prostitute is victimized. I think we can agree on this. If we cannot, please correct me in your response, and we will discuss accordingly. However, there are lots of horrendous cases of violence between the client and service provider (but I will get to that later). If all goes well, no one gets hurt. Thus, it is not an immoral practice because questions about ethics and morality relate to the happiness and unhappiness of beings that have the potential to feel such happiness and unhappiness. I have no ethical need to interfere when I see a plant destroyed. However, if I saw that a human was about to be crushed, I would have an ethical need to interfere. Therein, seeing that prostitution causes no harm to sentient creatures in its most innocent form, the laws and the enforcement of such laws in our country represent a massive waste of human energy. Campaigning against something that causes no harm to sentient creatures is quite foolish and is a massive waste of time and energy. We would not reasonably campaign against the eating of salad. Now, of course, the above shows only why prostitution in its most innocent form (no violence) is not immoral. Clearly, those who commit violent crimes against prostitutes are not moral people and the situations that arise because of them are quite tragic. Also, these situations are quite common. According to law.com, 204 prostitutes are murdered out of every 100,000. This is 20 times the national average. The average prostitute is beat no less than once a month. So, what are we to do to prevent these innocent but desperate people? What I propose to counter this is something like Amsterdam's red light zone. Prostitutes provide their services in a neighborhood specifically designed for such. They work in a building that is not their home, so potentially violent customers do not know where they live. Perhaps most importantly, there is an alarm button which immediately calls the police over if there is any sign of trouble. This would almost effectively eliminate all of the violence committed against prostitutes. In the system we currently have, prostitution is done in back alleys and places with no police thus the opportunity for violence is high. This, of course, leads to high levels of violence against them, but we can stop it via legalization. Another argument for legalization of prostitution is it would decrease the amount of STDs passed via prostitutes. The same study on laws.com that was mentioned earlier states that 50% of the world's prostitutes have HIV. Of course, since their profession is illegal, no prostitute is going to get a doctor to get tested for an STD. We should have, nationally, a system like we have in Nevada. A prostitute is required by law to wear a condom, and they must be tested weekly for STDs. Thus, legalizing prostitution will help hinder the currently massive growth of sexually transmitted diseases. The proof of this is the effectiveness of the Nevada system at stopping STDs. The porn stars of Los Angeles have higher rates of STDs than Nevadan prostitutes. A Nevadan prostitute has not been diagnosed with HIV since 1986. Compare that with the shocking figure of fifty percent, and it is easy to see why prostitution should be legalized. Just to be clear, what I suggest is a combination of the rigorous testing of Nevada and the red-light district of Amsterdam. Prostitutes would work in specific zones, have a button that would summons police immediately if the client is in any way doing something harmful. There would be no abusive pimp or middleman between client and servicer. This system would effectively end almost all of the violence against prostitutes, inhibit STDs, and free up manpower wasted on Vice departments in police to be used for the pursuit of actual criminals. Sources http://www.businessinsider.com... http://prostitution.procon.org... http://www.huffingtonpost.com... http://sex-crimes.laws.com...