Prostitution should be legalized

I will first defend my initial points before responding to con's arguments.1. Prostitution is a victimless crimeWhat is being defended here is consentual prostitution, not sexual slavery, so con‘s sensationalist copy-pasted argument that many girls entering slavery are raped is irrelevant just like pointing out the fact that many children are forced into making shoes is irrelevant to the question whether shoe-making should be legal. The problem in these scenarios is not the particular profession involved but the fact that they are forced, which is already illegal. The rest of the paragraph is a stream of emotionally charged baseless assertions. How would legalizing prostitution make STD‘s more prevalent? Why would buying the services of prostitutes legally rather than illegally be more likely to „erode whatever moral values the majority holds dear“, or promote anti-social behavior?These points must be elaborated upon and supported. Copying and pasting other peoples blog posts is not enough.2. Undermining the black market and increasing workplace safety for prostitutesAs long as there is a demand for the services of prostitutes, prostitution will exist. There is no way to eliminate the black market if the demand exists and prostitution is illegal. The only way that the black market could be elimated would be if the demand ceased, which is not going to happen, or if prostitution were legalized. Even if it were legalized I highly doubt it could be eliminated, but it would clearly be diminished. This would indeed make prostitutes safer since it is safer to work in a brothel that is regulated rather than in a brothel that is not.The book that con is quoting argues that four prostitutes in Melbourne worked at a legal brothel in less than ideal situations[1]. This is clearly a practical problem, not a fundamental one relating to the legality of prostitution. It is not being argued that by legalizing prostitution necessarily makes prostitutes perfectly safe. The point is that by regulating prostitution, the working conditions in the new regulated brothels with regular health checks would become preferrable to those that illegal prostitutes are used to now. Another major benefit that con has not responded to is the fact that prostitutes would be able to unionize, and would thus be able to improve their working conditions through the same means that other workers do. 3. Decreasing the taxpayers' loadCon argues here that violance would increase, but why would this be the case? This need elaboration. Con also arguesthat diseases would increase. This will be dealt with in con's second argument. The quote offered here is completely irrelevant to whether taxpayers would have to pay more or less or to whether prostitution should be legalized.Now on to con's arguments.1. Demeaning to womenHow would making prostitution legal „make women‘s bodies just sex objects to buy and sell“? To me, it seems that allowing women freedom over their own sex life isn‘t demeaning in the least. Treating them like children or idiots who are not capable of making their own decisions with regards to their own sex life seems alot more demeaning. I also fail to see how legalizing prostitution would enforce stereotypes and unrealistic standards of beuty. Most regular prostitutes do not look like celebrities or super models. Moreover, would this really be grounds for making something illegal?I cannot seem to find the quote that is cited through the link provided, but it seems that it is nothing more than someones irrelevant emotionally charged unsupported opinion. 2. DiseaseFor con's first quote, he conveniently does not include all of the information in his source which happens to state the reason why STD transmission increased, which is explained in the very next sentence:„...Sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and AIDS increased. This was due to the fact that medical authorities examined only one of the partners in the sex act, which was self-defeating. Also, favourable medical results provided a false sense of security to clients, prostitutes and controllers. Medical examinations also provoked hostility and decreased cooperation from prostitutes who moved around too often to be monitored. If one did become infected with a sexually transmitted disease, another prostitute would replace her for the medical check up, using the infected woman's medical card." [2]The problem was clearly not due to legalization, but due to the improper implementation of these health checks.I am not going to go through every single quote. Cons argument here essentially is that prostitutes have an incentive not to use condoms and are not likely to get tested for STD's or to respond properly. How this is an argument against legalizing prostitution, rather than for it, is not obvious since legal prostitutes would be required to do these things if prostitution were legalized. They would be required to use condoms and to get checked for STD's in order to work.I would like to point out that directly copy-pasting is plagiarism and not a proper substitute for an original response.Sources:[1] http://action.web.ca...[2]http://prostitution.procon.org...