Arguementative Essay Prostitution
A moral argument for the abolition of prostitution. Gabriel Hobbs Metropolitan State University
The proposed legalization or abolition of prostitution within American society is a debate that involves issues pertaining to our understanding of personal freedom and how our religious and cultural beliefs either limit or define that freedom, as well as our responsibility as a society to respond morally and ethically to acts of personal choice which deviate from those laws which society has created. Through objective analysis of empirical facts and testaments of personal experience we will attempt to cultivate a better understanding of our laws and the moral compass which guides them in an effort to develop a sound plan for the proposed abolition of prostitution within our society. People within society generally consider religion and morality to be acutely related. The danger in establishing law based solely on religious moral ideology is that it proposes a type of moral superiority which elevates itself above other religions, cultures and minority groups within a given society in an oppressive manner. Arguably the biggest problem with this method of thinking however, is that morality can become quite arbitrary. Author and attorney Joseph Sommer describes in no uncertain terms the reasons why prostitution should be made legal from what he terms the humanist perspective. In his endeavor to make a case in support of legalized prostitution Sommer draws a comparison between rights to things such as birth control and abortion as issues which he claims have similar legal standing with regard to people’s fundamental rights. Sommer categorizes these fundamental rights as, “Similar to issues such as birth control, abortion, and the right to death with dignity, this issue involves people 's fundamental rights to control their own bodies and decide the best way to conduct
The proposed legalization or abolition of prostitution within American society is a debate that involves issues pertaining to our understanding of personal freedom and how our religious and cultural beliefs either limit or define that freedom, as well as our responsibility as a society to respond morally and ethically to acts of personal choice which deviate from those laws which society has created. Through objective analysis of empirical facts and testaments of personal experience we will attempt to cultivate a better understanding of our laws and the moral compass which guides them in an effort to develop a sound plan for the proposed abolition of prostitution within our society. People within society generally consider religion and morality to be acutely related. The danger in establishing law based solely on religious moral ideology is that it proposes a type of moral superiority which elevates itself above other religions, cultures and minority groups within a given society in an oppressive manner. Arguably the biggest problem with this method of thinking however, is that morality can become quite arbitrary. Author and attorney Joseph Sommer describes in no uncertain terms the reasons why prostitution should be made legal from what he terms the humanist perspective. In his endeavor to make a case in support of legalized prostitution Sommer draws a comparison between rights to things such as birth control and abortion as issues which he claims have similar legal standing with regard to people’s fundamental rights. Sommer categorizes these fundamental rights as, “Similar to issues such as birth control, abortion, and the right to death with dignity, this issue involves people 's fundamental rights to control their own bodies and decide the best way to conduct
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