Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!usc!jarthur!ucivax!gateway
From: w25y@vax5.cit.cornell.edu
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Legalization of Prostitution (bodies & rights)
Message-ID: <1990Nov1.173135.727@vax5.cit.cornell.edu>
Date: 5 Nov 90 19:18:20 GMT
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Approved: tittle@ics.uci.edu
Nntp-Posting-Host: zola.ics.uci.edu

Some people would argue for the legalization of prostitution on the
grounds that sex is not fundamentally different from other services
that people are employed to perform.  However, I would claim that
there is an important difference: Imagine someone forced at gunpoint
to delete data files, carry boxes, or whatever.  Now imagine someone
being forced at gunpoint to participate in sex.  The latter is
considered to be a more severe crime than the former.

This may not apply directly to the case of someone selling sex
vountarily, but it indicates that the role of consent in sex is
considered more important than in other activities.

A similar comparison might be made between someone driven to
prostitution by economic necessity and someone who has no choice but
to write COBOL programs; the former case is considered a much greater
tragedy.

There are activities such as voting and organ donation that people may
engage in voluntarily, but may not do in exchange for money.  It is
not too unreasonable to suggest that sex should be one of them.  Vote
selling, like prostitution, is likely to go on anyway, but this is not
grounds for legalizing it.

                   -- Paul Ciszek
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"The trouble with normal is it always gets worse."  --Bruce Cockburn