Legalization of Prostitution

"Prostitution is immoral: 'One reason often given as to why prostitution is immoral is that it tends to involve coercion. In most cases, people do not freely decide to become prostitutes. In some cases, they are driven to the profession by desperation and a lack of other opportunities for employment. In other cases, they are forced into prostitution by others. In some cases, people are enslaved and forced to be prostitutes." Con makes the argument that prostitution is a negative thing due to the fact that many people are forced into it by others. I would like to turn this argument, as if prostitution were legal and govern-mentally regulated, those who were forced into prostitution would not fear alerting the authorities of the fact that they are essentially slaves; allowing the government to get them out of the situation. Con also refers to the fact that some prostitutes are driven to do what they do because of financial need. I ask Con to look around and see how many people are truly doing their jobs only because of a love for it, and not at all due to financial reasons. "For those who are unaware of this fact, slavery (both relating to prostitution and other forms) is alive and well around the world today.' Some argue that women choose to be prostitutes, and this is simply not true women who are prostitutes are coerced into it by someone, or forced into it because of an unfortunate economic situation." The burden of proof now lies on Con to provide evidence that all women involved in prostitution are being coerced or alternatively forced into it, and that NONE at all are in it because they enjoy the work. " It also says something that all of the world's major religions are against it..." Considering that Christianity promotes child rape (Numbers 31:17-18), fig tree abuse (Matthew 21:18-22), and mass child slaughter (2 Kings 2:23-25) in its holy book, I think it is safe to assume that we don't use Christianity as a source of morality. But the statement that all major religions oppose prostitution is simply false. Islam's Quran supports prostitution (Surah 4:24), describing it as "mutaa", or enjoyment marriage. It states that women can have temporary marriages with men for a previously agreed upon amount of compensation. "Prostitution is not a victimless crime: 'Melissa Farley, PhD of Prostitution Research & Education, argues that prostitution is hardly a victimless crime. In her "Prostitution: Fact sheet on Human Rights Violations" Farley says that prostitution is sexual harassment, rape, battering, verbal abuse, domestic violence, a racist practice, a violation of human rights, childhood sexual abuse, a consequence of male domination of women and a means of maintaining male domination of women."All prostitution causes harm to women," Farley writes. "Whether it is being sold by one's family to a brothel, or whether it is being sexually abused in one's family, running away from home, and then being pimped by one's boyfriend, or whether one is in college and needs to pay for next semester's tuition and one works at a strip club behind glass where men never actually touch you " all these forms of prostitution hurt the women in it." Prostitutes Are Biggest Victims To believe prostitution has no victims, one must ignore these statistics published in Farley's Fact Sheet: -78 percent of 55 women who sought help from the Council for Prostitution Alternatives in 1991 reported being raped an average of 16 times a year by pimps, and were raped 33 times a year by johns. -62 percent reported having been raped in prostitution. -73 percent reported having experienced physical assault in prostitution. -72 percent were currently or formerly homeless. -92 percent stated that they wanted to escape prostitution immediately. -83 percent of prostitutes are victims of assault with a weapon. -75 percent of women in escort prostitution had attempted suicide. -67 percent meet diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Prevalence of Incest'" Once again, I would like to turn this argument. I will be making the point that most of these issues would be resolved if prostitution were legalized and regulated, as it is in Germany. Prostitution was legalized in Germany in 2002. Since prostitution became legal, the cases of human trafficking went down from 1235 in 2003 to 710 in 2009. This shows that as prostitution becomes legal, it becomes way more safe for anyone involved in it. And once again, the fact that prostitution is illegal is what causes so many issues, as if it were legal, those involved would not be afraid to report issues like rape, sexual harassment, assault, and other workplace abuse. I would also like to remind Con that if prostitution were legal and and govern-mentally regulated, the field of prostitution would be completely optional for people to join, and those going into the field could look at similar statistics to the ones that you have shown, and determine for themselves if going into prostitution is worth the risk. Taking that decision away from them, as Con wants to continue doing, is doing nothing to help the problem. It only makes it worse. "It will aid in the spreading of HIV (and other sexually transmitted diseases): This one is pretty self explanatory, if a prostitute has HIV and they do not use a protection during intercourse they will spread their HIV to that person, who will spread it to their partner and will spread it to other prostitues, who will spread it to more and more people. Pretty soon it will be a full blown epidemic." By Con's logic here, we should criminalize pre-marital sex to stop the spread of STD's. But assuming that prostitution was made legal, those who are about to solicit a prostitute would be informed of any STD's that the prostitute has beforehand, in the same way that there are warning labels throughout stores. People soliciting a prostitute will know what they are getting into before they do it, making it their choice, and therefore their fault if they get an STD. "It is demeaning to women: It is completely inapropriate, and is unacceptable to sell women's bodies when women already get paid 77 cents to 1 dollar of men's work. We do not need this further degrading them, and portraying them as men's property." This argument only holds any weight if we assume that only women go into prostitution, which is simply untrue. I will below provide sources showing the existence of several male prostitutes in Germany. For this argument to hold up, Con must prove beyond reasonable doubt that ONLY women are prostitutes. Seeing as to how the BOP lies on Con to prove that a prohibition on prostitution is a positive thing, it is Con's responsibility to either post new points, or invalidate my rebuttals against them. I wish Con good luck on this matter. Sources: http://utopianist.com... http://valerietarico.com... http://people.opposingviews.com...