Ethics and Good Prostitution

Prostitution: In the End, There’s Nothing Wrong with It. Prostitution is defined by Florida State Statute 796.07 in 1994 as “the giving or receiving of the body for sexual activity for hire but excludes sexual activity between spouses” (“Legal Definition of Prostitution”). Though it has been illegalized, an age old discrepancy dealing with the morality and ethical concepts of prostitution is still a controversial topic being discussed today. The main ethical problem being debated about the profession of prostitution is if the selling of sex, something that is meant to be private and personal, should be allowed and morally accepted within society if used for monetary gain in order to pay for the necessities of life. Some question whether prostitution should remain outlawed if it just a means of profit and a way to continue to support oneself in everyday life, while others fully condemn the selling of the human body to others for pleasure. After evaluating the normative theories discussed in Noel Stewart’s Ethics, one could bring about four noticeably differing views towards prostitution, two of which will be discussed in the following essay. While the theory of utilitarianism would initially state prostitution to be moral and acceptable as long as it brings happiness and utility to oneself and greater numbers of people, Kant’s moral theory would first condemn the moral duty disturbed by selling sex, but then consequentially develop an allowance for prostitution after classifying it as a mutually respected act and not a means to an end for one person of the relationship. The general principle and three concepts outlined within the normative theory of utilitarianism with reference to John Stuart Mill’s rule utilitarianism specifically, as well as Kantian beliefs dealing with the categorical imperative however, reach the same conclusion in the view of prostitution, deeming it morally ethical through slightly different thought and ideological processes.

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