omit discussions into the morality of third-party soliciting, such as pimps or madams, for brevity’s sake.Moral vs. Legal justification.When considering the issue of prostitution’s morality, I would like to begin with a distinction between morality and legality. There are many instances in which the two concepts have existed independently of the other – and whether the law should apply itself to moral issues is a subject beyond the scope of this essay. However, with regards to prostitution, it may very well turn out that prostitution could be immoral and yet legally tolerated, if not sanctioned. The contemporary liberal view, in the Millian tradition, is that such acts are essentially private contracts between consenting adults which is beyond the purview of legal enforcement because they(according to some) do no harm to other parties.However, the issue at stake here is not so much whether the law should come down in favour or against prostitution, but whether prostitution itself is inherently morally objectionable. In a that vein, I will also therefore avoid arguments about the enforceability of any proscription against prostitution – whether prostitution can be stamped out or not is irrelevant to whether it is morally objectionable or not.There is also, of course, the age-old ethical question raised about definitions of morality, and by what moral benchmark one uses to judge an issue such as prostitution. To this end, I would like to approach the issue from several disparate perspectives: traditional Christian morality, the utilitarian perspective, the radical feminist perspective, and the secularly romantic perspectiveTraditional Christian moralityPrimoratz sums up the traditional Christian argument succinctly:“[it] views sex as something inferior, sinful and shameful, and accepts it only when, and in so far as, it serves an important extrinsic purpose which cannot be attained by any other means: procr...
