Prostitution should be legal.

Rebuttals to Round 4 Arguments: "However underage prostitutes should not affect everyone else who is completely of age and can make their own choices." -I think that your arguments are slightly off point. As I mentioned before, an overwhelming percentage of prostitutes are brought into that lifestyle at a very early age. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The crime is completely determined by motivation! It's basically convicting someone and throwing them in jail for having the wrong motivation to have sex." -I believe you are taking prostitution and criminality in the completely wrong perspective. First, the crime behind prostitution is exploitation. Exploitation is a crime, and it is actually very common with underage girls. Ironically, most prostitutes, as we identified earlier, were exploited at a very early age, and as a result, they have become battered by the lifestyle. Take this following source for example: "Prostitution is consuming thousands of girls and women and reaping enormous profits for organized crime in post-communist countries. In addition, each year, several hundred thousand women are trafficked from Eastern European countries for prostitution in sex industry centers all over the world. The practices are extremely oppressive and incompatible with universal standards of human rights. The sex trade is a form of contemporary slavery and all indications predict its growth and expansion into the 21st century." [1] -If we digest this statement, and use some deductive reasoning we can jump to a couple solid points. First, the regulation of prostitution will just expand on human trafficking. Pimps and greedy businessmen will target young girls and groom them to partake into the sex trade. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I will replace the words 'having sex' with say, eating a burrito. If I eat a burrito because I like the burrito, its fine, but when I do it because I want money, its suddenly illegal?" -You have mentioned a couple times that my reasoning was illogical. Now, I would really like for you to explain how you compare the exploitation of minors into prostitution to eating a "burrito"? I hope you understand that this is a very real issue. You bring up points about eating burritos, and I am bringing up points about; exploitation, physical abuse, drug addiction, and rape. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The problem isn't the act itself, the problem is the industry which surrounds it, so wouldn't it be better to legalize it so we could take steps to eliminate this abusive industry and keep the prostitutes safe?" -Now we are getting somewhere. The real nuts and bolts into why some people feel prostitution should be regulated. I present this source as an argument: "Considering the extreme conditions of exploitation in the sex industry, those distinctions are nothing but abstractions that make for good academic debates. They are, however, meaningless to women under the control of pimps or traffickers. Certainly, the sex industry doesn't differentiate between "free" and "forced," and my research reveals that men who buy women and children in prostitution don't differentiate either. Legalization and regulation aim to redefine prostitution as a form of work, indicated by the use of the term "sex work." The renaming may clean up the image of prostitution, but it doesn't end the violence and exploitation."[1] -What can we conclude from this particular statement. How do you intend to control the pimps and the businessmen that will traffic minors into the industry? How do you intend to regulate or control the drug addiction? We can't even control the heroin epidemic that is on the rise in this country. Do you really believe we can control rape of physical abuse? Can you guarantee me that all prostitution will be conducted in some facility, where security personnel manage a camera system? What do you intent to do when men decide to sneak camera's into the room and film their sexual intercourse, then sell it on the internet? To what ends do you expect to take prostitution, and please don't tell me its for the income the governments will receive through taxation? -Lets look into healthcare for these prostitutes. Do you really think insurance companies will provide very cheap insurance to women who are likely to obtain some form of STD? What about all the males that could catch some of these STD's? Is it possible that STD's will rise in this country? If that's the case, what will happen to our insurance premiums? Will the government now force those who can actually afford healthcare to also pay for the treatment of Sexually Transmitted Diseases? I am using a little logic here. However we still have one more argument. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Okay, it's fair to say many prostitutes were abused as children. But how about the prostitutes that weren't and chose the profession from their own free will? And even if there was a link between all of them, isn't the damage already done? " -So from what I can conclude from your statement, the damage is already done to minors, why not let them have a career in prostitution. Is that the point you are trying to make? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Then you agreed with me and said that yes, it would be entirely illegal. However, your statement is illogical, since before you said that we do have the right to do the things that meet the criteria, and my example certainly met the criteria. Your contradicting yourself. Look, I think you're a skilled debater, yet you're not being reasonable." -I don't see where I contradicted myself. I told you people could have sex of their own free will. However, men who pay women for sex are guilty of exploitation. They are exploiting a sexual service from someone who was likely brought into prostitution through; phsyical abuse, mental abuse, molestation, drugs, or manipulation. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Conclusion: -Lets break down prostitution in a different way. Why do men pay women for a sexual service? To gratify a sexual desire? To fulfil a sexual fantasy? Is it a taboo for them? Are they cheating on their wives? -Women sell their bodies for money, not because it feels good. Now there may be a very small percentage of women that cope with the lifestyle of prostitution, but that does not make it right. When taking into consideration the amount of minors that are manipulated and driven into prostitution, it is completely rational and fair to conclude exploitation is the crime. "Women's bodies and emotions must belong to them alone. They must not be traded or sold. The sex industry targets and consumes young women, usually under age 25, often girls in their teens. If a state permits prostitution to flourish, a certain portion of each generation of young women will be lost. Prostitution causes extreme harm to the body and the mind. Women who survive the beatings, rapes, sexually transmitted diseases, drugs, alcohol, and emotional abuse, emerge from prostitution ill, traumatized, and often, as poor as when they entered."[1] On to you! [1]http://www.uri.edu...