accomplish a goal. In doing this, a person is respecting the other. Both people are gaining from the act (Birsch, 109). For example, a person needs to study and pass a test so they hire a tutor to help them study. The one person is gaining because they are studying and the other person is gaining because they are getting paid. The second part of the test is called “means to an end”. This means a person is using another to accomplish a goal or end (Birsch, 110). In doing this, a person is simply using another for their own gain. For example, a person. This is seen as immoral. When a person acts on the moral imperative it means that they are respecting their moral duty.
According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of prostitution is “the act of having sex in exchange for money” (website). Prostitution is seen to be a very big issue in the world today. The National Task Force on Prostitution proposes, “that over one million people in the US have worked as prostitutes in the United States.” (http://www.bayswan.org/stats.html). According to a study of 222 women in prostitution in Chicago, 35% entered prostitution before age of 15, 62% entered prostitution before age of 18, and 87% entered prostitution before age of 21 (http://www.impactresearch.org/documents/sistersspeakout.pdf). There were multiple other studies done in different states that had very similar results. Research shows that many women feel that “selling themselves was their only alternative for survival.” (http://www.fbi.gov/stats-service ... d-human-trafficking). With prostitution being illegal in 49 states, why is prostitution still going on if it is known to be illegal? (http://prostitution.procon.org/v ... p?resourceID=000119). A study shows that, “Ninety-two percent of women who were involved in prostitution said they wanted to leave prostitution, but couldn't because they lack basic human services such as a home, job training, health care, counseling and treatment for drug or alcohol addiction.” ("People in prostitution suffer from wartime trauma symptoms caused by acts of violence against them," Business Wire, 18 August 1998). This raises the question, “Is prostitution ethical?”
According to Jeremy Bentham’s theory of Utilitarianism, prostitution would be considered unethical. Utilitarianism is the theory that an action that produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people is ethical. This goes along with the principle of utility which states an action is ethical or moral if it creates more pleasure than pain. Considering Bentham looks at the quantitative aspects of an action, he would argue that prostitution is unethical after completing the calculations for the Hedonic Calculus. Although it may seem that the client’s pleasurable experience may outweigh the pain of the prostitute, it does not. If one looks at the action under each of the seven criteria, one is able to see that the pain of the prostitute outweighs the client’s pleasure. For example, take the criteria duration. The duration (how long the pleasure or pain last) of a man’s pleasurable sexual experience will be a low positive number. It will be a low positive number because the sexual experience will only last a short amount of time. Calculating the prostitute’s pain or pleasure, it will show a high negative number. The duration of the prostitute’s pain will be much longer than the pleasure of the client. The physical pain might be short but the emotional pain will last longer. Research shows that, “emotional defense mechanisms used to survive in prostitution have long lasting effects” (http://www.ruhama.ie/easyedit/files/Ruhama-NextStep-6.pdf). The emotional health consequences of prostitution are “severe trauma, stress, depression, anxiety, self medication through alcohol and drugs and drug abuse; and eating disorders” (http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/mhvhealt.htm). All of these effects of prostitution would outweigh the client’s short sexual pleasure. After the whole calculus was calculated it would prove that prostitution is unethical because it produces more pain than pleasure.
The deontologist, Immanuel Kant would also argue that prostitution is unethical. Deontology looks at the morality of an action based of the intention of the action rather than the consequence of the action. To see if rules were following the moral imperative, Kant produced a supreme principle of the morality imperative. The test that he came up with is called the means/ends test. For the topic of prostitution, Kant would not find it to be moral or ethical. Prostitution is considered a means to an end, which is deemed as unethical. One reason Kant would say prostitution is unethical is because a person fails to achieve duties for oneself. When a person does not accomplish their duty to themselves they are making themselves into an object. Kant argues, “Human beings are, therefore, not entitled to offer themselves, for profit, as things for the use of others in the satisfaction of their sexual propensities” (Kant 165). When one is selling yourself for the sexual pleasures of others, you have made yourself to be an object. When one is a prostitute they are giving themselves up to make money, in turn they are not fulfilling the duty to oneself. Kant states, “to let ones person out on hire and to surrender it to another for the satisfaction of his sexual desire in return for money is the depth of infamy (Kant 166). As a prostitute one is allowing their autonomy to be taken away and are then becoming objects. This is why Kant would find prostitution to unethical.
Another reason Kant believes that prostitution is unethical is because one is using someone as a means to an end or to benefit a need. “It is absurd that a reasonable being, an end for the sake of which all else is means, should us himself as a means. It is true that a person can serve as a means for others, but only in a way whereby he does not cease to be a person and an end” (Kant 120). In terms of prostitution Kant is saying that a prostitute is permitting themselves to be used for another’s personal benefit, but in doing this they are allowing themselves to be used as an end.
Kant states, “as soon as a person becomes an Object of appetite for another, all motives of moral relationship cease to function, because an Object of appetite for another a person becomes a thing and can be treated and used as such by everyone” (Kant 163). This means when someone buys a prostitute and once they are sexually pleasured, there is no need for the prostitute so they get rid of them. This proves that prostitution would fail the means to an end test. A person uses a prostitute specifically to be sexually pleasured (personal benefit) and once they are, there is technically no use for the prostitute any more, so they get “rid” of them. This is using them as a means to an end. The “end” meaning being sexually pleasured and the “means” would be by prostitution. Prostitution fails to fulfill the duty of oneself as well as the means to an end test, therefore deontologist, Kant would view prostitution as unethical.
I agree with Kant and Bentham’s view on prostitution and how it is unethical. I think that prostitution is very mentally and physically destructive. I believe that people should never subject themselves to being used by another for personal gain which agrees with Kant’s view on why prostitution is unethical. People in prostitution are beaten, raped and taken advantage of. People are stripped of their freedom and violated in many ways. Besides the physical abuse, illnesses and sexually transmitted diseases are very prevalent in women in prostitution. Research from a Minneapolis/St. Paul study of 68 women in prostitution showed that only 15% of the women “had never contracted one of the STDs, not including AIDS, most injurious to health (chlamydia, syphilis, gonorrheal, herpes)” (http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/mhvhealt.htm). Being in prostitution also has many emotional damages as well. There are many long-lasting emotional effects that take a toll on a person while in prostitution. It is said that women in prostitution have a type of “psychological paralysis” in which they show characteristics of “immobility, acceptance of victimization, hopelessness, and an inability to take the opportunity to change” (http://www.ruhama.ie/easyedit/files/Ruhama-NextStep-6.pdf). All of these effects are long-lasting and are very difficult to live with. Many women have post-traumatic stress disorder and have tried to commit suicide. Many women turn to prostitution to pay for their drug habit or they use drugs to cope with the trauma and pain from prostitution. Substance abuse is very high among women in prostitution. The emotional and physical traumas make prostitution unethical. With this, I agree with Bentham’s hedonic calculus, the pain and trauma of the prostitute outweighs the sexual pleasure of the client. All of the effects and actions of prostitution will deem prostitution to be unethical.
Utilitarianist Jeremy Bentham and deontologist Immanuel Kant would agree that prostitution is unethical, as do I. Kant believes that if a person does not fulfill their duties to oneself then they are unethical. A prostitute is a person that gives up their freedom by selling themselves which would be not fulfilling their |
