Prostitution Legal or Illegal Essay Example

If I wanted to make prostitution legal I might argue the fact that laws prohibiting prostitution are inappropriate because they violate the basic rights and liberties of the people involved. Prostitution is the voluntary sale (or rental) of a labor service. Individuals own their own bodies and their own labor services and have the right to decide how those labor services should be used. In my opinion if prostitution was made legal the government would be able to collect tax on the income. I would argue the fact that sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS should be the reason to make prostitution illegal. Ironically, the rise of AIDS and STD’s has a compelling argument to actually legalize prostitution. According to research done at UNLV approx. half of the street prostitutes in DC, NYC and NJ are HIV positive. Yet in Nevada where prostitution is legal, not one (since 1989) of the state licensed prostitutes has ever tested positive for AIDS. I personally think prostitution should be legal myself. I think if it were legal it would not have to be done “underground” or dangerous locations which result in women getting brutally beat, raped and even murdered. If prostitution was legal and done in brothels or specialized places, it would be safer for women. On the other side of the debate I think if prostitution was made legal it would promote sex trafficking and probably increase child prostitution. A report done for the governmental Budapest Group* stated that 80% of women in the brothels in the Netherlands are trafficked from other countries (Budapest Group, 1999: 11). It would not so much control the sex industry, but there would be a huge expansion. Legalization of prostitution in the State of Victoria, Australia, has led to massive expansion of the sex industry. Whereas there were 40 legal brothels in Victoria in 1989, in 1999 there were 94, along with 84 escort services (Sullivan and Jeffreys: 2001). With the expansion our children would be more