Legal prostitution hot topic at Oxford debate

**Kiwi 1691** · 20-02-2010, 10:31 PM

Twenty-five years after New Zealand's anti-nuclear policy was debated at the prestigious Oxford Union, our prostitution laws are taking centre stage.
The Prostitutes Collective national co-ordinator, Catherine Healy, will enter the debating chamber in England next week, to argue that prostitution should be legalised.
Squaring off against her will be a top British policeman and a conservative American lobby group.
"The nerves will be a bit jittery. I'll need to calm down on the flight over," she said. "Every word matters, in the sense that I'll be representing what New Zealand and its law have meant for women."
It is 25 years since former prime minister David Lange came to the world's attention at the Oxford Union.
He fiercely defended New Zealand's anti-nuclear stance with a speech that included the line: "If you hold your breath just for a moment ... I can smell the uranium on it as you lean towards me!"
Ms Healy said she was honoured to follow Mr Lange.
"It was a radical thing he was debating at the time, and prostitution law reform is a similar radical idea."
Ms Healy will debate against Superintendent Alan Caton, who works near Ipswich, where several prostitutes were murdered four years ago.
Janice Crouse, from family issues lobby group Concerned Women for America, will also argue prostitution should be illegal.
The prospect of a tough debate does not worry Ms Healy. She has fought for the rights of sex workers for years. A former teacher, she had been planning to head overseas before getting involved with the sex industry in the 1980s.
Prostitution became legal in New Zealand in 2003.
"I think I've got quite a bit of experience debating the issue."
British interest in New Zealand's legal sex industry was sparked by a BBC documentary. Two women from the Women's Institute visited on a fact-finding tour, voting Wellington brothel Bon Ton the best brothel in the world.

Legal prostitution hot topic at Oxford debate | Stuff.co.nz

**JacquesMagique** · 20-02-2010, 10:58 PM

I don't really understanding the Uk's laws on prostitution, they seem really quite ambiguous.

DougieG · 20-02-2010, 11:29 PM

Everywhere where it is legal and highly regulated creates better conditions. It takes the drugs out of the equation and gives prostitutes a much healthier working environment. The question is whether you want a better, healthier country, or to stick by principle and keep it illegal as an 'immoral act'. Both have their plus points, and there are many intelligent people who will argue that the law should reflect morality, however subjective that is, but it's clear where I stand...

**Opinionated** · 21-02-2010, 11:45 AM

I think the intellectual argument for legalisation, as outlined by Mr G below, is clearly stronger than the traditional moral objections. Whilst I empathise with the idea that sex should ideally be confined to a loving, caring relationship between adults and not reduced to a consumable and transient past time, on a practical level outlawing prostitution hasn't worked.
On a more abstract note (and a word of warning I may start to go a bit feminist here for which I will not apologise), but by legalising and effectively adding a level of respect to this "profession" we are essentially encouraging the concept of selling oneself as a lifestyle choice to our young women and (my particular concern) young impressionable girls. It's hard enough to grow up female in this country when the role models thrust at you (Katie Price, Victoria Beckham, Jade Goody et. al, shudder) are built up faults and all by the media as the epitomy of success only to be knocked down again with utmost cruelty, let alone how it treats intelligent career women or those who don't conform in terms of body shape/looks.

DC · 21-02-2010, 02:24 PM

Personally I believe the legalisation of prostitution, as well as efforts to de-immoralise it, can only bring benefits. The industry will exist irrelevent of the law, bringing it out into the open protects both the public and practitioners. It would undermine both the drug trade (which is strongly linked to prostitution) and obviously the sex trade, which also protects those women. Furthermore it would help to decrease the spread of STDs. While I'd be the last person to hark back to history, prostitutes in Ancient Greece were in fact the most powerful women, with the ability to own land and conduct private trade, such rights were not extended to married women, there are even suggestions that Pericles, arguably the most powerful of Ancient Greek rulers, was under the strong influence of his mistress Aspasia, a renowned prostitute.