PRO: Legalization of Prostitution

By: Shaina Mavreen D. Villaroza

Section: WFW6 English 10 - Prof. Naida Rivera

If you take a good look on prostitution as an occupation, it’s one of the oldest professions

in human history. Religion such as Catholicism which used to manage prostitution once now

rejects it. It is simply a job in which services are exchanged for payment between two consenting

adults. If a woman decides to exchange money for sex, it is a personal choice as it is also a right

for man to be able to pay for sex. If you think about it, just like every other services provided,

there would be no prostitution without the demand for the market and the services provided.

Legalization promotes privacy and liberty. “The freedom to choose one’s reasons for engaging in

sex is an important part of sexual freedom”, quoted from Alan Soble. “The function of the

government is to protect me from others. It’s up to me, thank you, to protect me from me (San

Francisco Chronicle, Hoppe, A., 1992)”. Prostitutes should not be looked down upon because

there are immoral people in other professions such as doctors signing prescriptions for drugs,

lawyers, and priests. It makes no sense in a free society for the government to be telling people

particularly the poor to conduct service in exchange for money. “Selling is legal, and sex is legal,

so why isn’t selling sex legal?” to paraphrase George Carlin.

Legalization of prostitution improves neighborhood and promotes safety

(legalizeprostitution.htm). Prostitutes should naturally be found on brothels or motels if

prostitution is legal. But they are forced to work into streets and neighborhoods are exposed to

the activity against their will. Others who work at night and get into cars are very prone to serial

killing. A sensible solution would be to designate areas where prostitutes can work safer and

where clients could go and avoid association with neighborhoods who do not wish to get

involved with it.

The sexual aspects of this is sex is a healthy outlet and although we are not animals,

desires, actions, feelings, and thought of a sexual nature are a very strong part of who we are as

human beings. Although laws have been made, prostitution still exists and will not disappear any

time soon. Many countries have legalized and monitored prostitution. In Singapore, it is common

and a publicly open trade. In Denmark, women can be prostitutes as long as it is not their only

means of occupation. Canada, France, and Mexico and even the biblical area of Israel allow

prostitution. In the Netherlands, it is to be contained in brothels and in England and Wales, it is

limited to individuals being able to be prostitutes. In the US, it is illegal except for the state of

Nevada. Prostitution is legal in 50%, illegal in 39%, and limitedly legal in 11% in one hundred

countries worldwide chosen to inclusive of major religions, geographical regions, and policies

toward prostitution (prostitution.procon.org, 2009). As of 2009, one source estimated that there

were 800,000 women working as prostitutes in the Philippines, with some of them believed to be

underage (preda.org, 2012). If prostitution is legalized, it will benefit sex workers and their

clients. For whatever reason, financial or personal satisfaction, sex workers can help their clients

who pay for sex because that is their only way to get sex. And people who have conditions of

erotic phobia and other sexual dysfunctions have therapeutic claims of sex workers helping them

overcome such conditions. What can we argue in preventing sex workers to help such persons?

On the morality issue, which many people have debated over prostitution, why don’t we

all have enough of a problem with boxing, gangster rap, eating like a pig, one night stands or

binge drinking in private to make any of those illegal? Prostitution is not going away. Legalize it

and regulate it. People need to be more realistic but this is easier said than done; this is a nation

obsessed with morality we live in. It is the man or the woman who is to be blamed for cheating,

not the prostitutes. In societies and countries where prostitution is legalized, regulated, and

monitored, rates have dropped in crime, prisons being overcrowded, murder, rape, and suicide

rates have gone down, STD, HIV, and AIDS cases have also dropped (procon.org, 2011).

Another benefit of legalizing prostitution is to the prostitutes themselves, which are treated

poorly by pimps and abused or owned by gangs. Keeping prostitution illegal contributes to crime

because criminals make prostitutes and their customers an easy target for fraud, robbery, and

other criminal acts. The victims could not report this to authorities for this will have to make

them admit for doing something illegal when the attack took place. It would also help if

prostitution will be monitored to make sure there will be no more human trafficking, no more

minors being into that trade.

So knowing all this information about prostitution, prostitution should be legalized so law

enforcement will be put to better use. Policemen effort and time to find and prosecute the

prostitutes and their customers could be saved to take care of more important things and be able

to help people in more important situations.

References:

100 Countries and Their Prostitution Policies. Prostitution. 2009.

http://prostitution.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000772. Retrieved on: September

26, 2013.

Legalize Prostitution. http://64.132.170.146/prostitution.htm. Retrieved on: September 26, 2013.

Prostitution in the Philippines-a time for change. 2012. http://www.preda.org/en/news/child-

abuse-crimes/prostitution-in-the-philippines-a-time-for-change/. Retrieved on: Spetember 26,

2013.

San Francisco Chronicle. 1993. Hoppe, Arthur. http://64.132.170.146/prostitution.htm.

Would Legal Prostitution decrease sexual violence such as rape? 2011.

http://prostitution.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000122. Retrieved on: September

26, 2013.