Legalizing prostitution would at the very least allow the law to protect prostitutes from legitimate rape and allow better health services for STDs (which would be a benefit to all of us, not just the people involved in prostitution). Also if it is legalized it becomes taxable, which means more money for public services...

I don't know as though I really see any cons to legalizing it. There might be a small increase in the number of prostitutes, but at the same time it would be easier to identify and reach out to these people because they don't have to work in secret any more. 

I believe that prostitution should be legalized simply because the government has no business telling people what they can and cannot do with their own bodies. That doesn't mean I think prostitution is a good thing, because I don't. However, America isn't supposed to be about forcing restrictions on the citizens based on what one group of people thinks is acceptable or not; it's about personal freedom and responsibility.

It's wrong, no pros. The fact that Jesus associated with them is because He was sent to save them. Just because Jesus kept company with cheaters and theives and liars doesn't mean we are excused to become like them. We are all in sin, yes, but there is no need for it to be encouraged. We can reach out to them without becoming them, as long as Christians see them for what they are: God's creation, just like us.

Prostitution should be legal. There are no cons. It would provide safety, structure and some protective measures to an otherwise very dangerous occupation.

@Ancient_Scribe@xanga - "but they tell us what we can and can't do with our bodies all the time... like a person can't use their body to rape someone else..."

I disagree with your logic here. The government tells us what we can't do to someone else's body, not our own. We can't force sex on them, we can't endanger them by driving under the influence etc. That is different then telling us how we can use our own bodies.

Definitely not. Yes, Christ did associate with tax collectors and prostitutes, and there ARE prostitutes in the lineage of Jesus, however, I think this is just another example of how great our God is. That he would use, the broken, the weak, the lost for His greater glory.

But enabling prostitution is not the way to reach others. It's God working in their lives and us loving on them.

Throughout Western tradition, the law has always served as a moral teacher that reinforced the values of the people. In a free republic where morality and law both descend from the people, legalizing prostitution is the same thing as saying that prostitution is moral. I for one am not willing to say that. I hope I'm still in the majority, but perhaps not.

I'm told that where it is legal, in Nevada, the exploitation, crime, violence, etc. associated with it continues.  In some of the more politically progressive municipalities, there was a movement to "decriminalize" marajuana back in the 1980's.  Notable in the the southeastern Michigan area was Ann Arbor.  I think is was repealed sometime back.  It's time seemingly came and went, in the view of the voters.  There's a saying that insanity is doing the same things with the expection of yielding different results.  Kind of like my being able to drive after x number of drinks while the other guy can't handle it.  That's called self-delusion.

Reminds me of LA buying it's homeless new shopping carts to push around...and some politician proud of himself for thinking that up.

Your "solution" is fixing the symptom, not the problem.

Prostitution ideally should be discouraged, it isn't just a physical act, no matter how much people would like to believe that. Every time there is sexual conduct between strangers, it is damaging to the psyche.

I think a lot of people often confuse the difference between breaking the law and being a bad person. Not all people who break laws are bad people, and not all of them necessarily choose to be in the circumstances that have led them to need to break the law. This also extends to women and men who are prostitutes. Prostitutes have long been looked down on as being low-lives. In the way that they are talked about, treated, etc. That isn't always the case, though. I certainly agree with that.

However, the act of making prostitution against the law is more about condemning the act of prostitution itself, not the prostitute as a person. Even though people often consider the two to be one in the same.

I think, going along the line of this post in thinking, the more compassionate thing to do would be to keep prostitution against the law but perhaps change things so that the situation of the prostitute can be taken into consideration, and to help said prostitute achieve a different way to support him/her self, which resides within the boundaries of the law. Is the problem that the prostitute is in financial trouble and that is why they are in the profession that they are? Entirely possible. If that is the case, then perhaps one should look into what happened to cause this person to have to resort to prostitution just to make ends meet. Help them fix that problem. That doesn't mean that prostitution should not be illegal, though. Programs like this should be implemented, but going along this thinking you can't really say that all people who are prostitutes do not choose it purposefully and willfully for themselves. There are women (and probably men) who are prostitutes because they want to be. Going along the line of thinking that was presented in the post, it could still be compassionate and beneficial to these people if prostitution was legalized, but it didn't really say anything about a person who WANTED to be a prostitute. Why should people be allowed to break the law just because they want to? I suppose you could get into the idea that it is their body and they can do with it as they please, and if prostitution were legalized it is possible that it could be covered on health insurance and unions could be set up to help with that and to protect prostitutes in other ways, just like unions do for other professions. But, that pushes the boundaries of a different kind of debate.

Just because you can't stop something from happening completely doesn't mean that it should be legalized due to the futility of trying to stifle it. Going by that logic, you should also legalize rape, murder, human trafficking, child trafficking, and pedophilia...

And, before anyone points it out, I know those are different things and the OP did not say a single word about any of that and was not likely alluding to such things. But, I'm just saying, simply, that if you go along the thinking that if something is going to happen anyone, that it has always happened and will continue to happen, and you can't catch every criminal who breaks a specific crime, so we should just legalize it and use compassion when dealing with it, where does it cross the line from being okay to not being okay anymore? If an argument such as that can be made for one law, it can probably be argued for just about any law. :/ And that makes me very, very...uncomfortable, if not afraid.

legalize it.  to me, there is absolutely no difference between a prostitute and a woman who only sleeps with guys who buy her stuff. 

@LadyGwenivere@xanga - 

"if they were to legalize prostitution, all those innocent children being sold as sex-slaves would be called what? employees???"

actually, i imagine that if were legalized, all of the employment laws we have regarding children today would apply, as well as any laws concerning statutory rape.

@LadyGwenivere@xanga - I believe the idea is, by legalizing prostitution in general, you can take steps to stop the sex slave trade.  Once something is legalized it can be taxed, regulated, and there can be rules set up to protect those in it--to prevent children, or anyone, from being sold into this against their will.  Or at least, that's the theory.