Essay Question:
Personal statement, free choice of topic
The Morality of Prostitution Policy When I said that I wanted to talk to a prostitute, the pimp laughed: 'That's what they all say.' No, I insisted, I really just wanted to talk. For my senior essay on prostitution policy, I had received funding to study regulated prostitution in Singapore and the Netherlands; this brothel was my first stop in Singapore. The pimp recommended that I interview a candid, experienced woman named Far, but he charged me the regular hiring rate. Far's English was limited, but fortunately, we both spoke Mandarin. Her parents were farmers in Thailand, and she called home every week. She aspired to be a clothing designer, but in the meantime, she preferred the human interaction of prostitution to the mundane routine of farming. Her cheerful attitude challenged stereotypes of unhappy women forced into prostitution by starvation, drug addiction, or violence. Far cherished her health but disliked needles. The brothel women receive sexually transmitted disease testing twice monthly, per government regulations. When I asked Far how often she would seek testing if not for regulations, she said just once a month - supporting claims that regulating prostitution can lead to earlier detection of STDs. Because prostitutes and clients contracting these diseases can transmit them to unsuspecting third parties, prostitution threatens the general public with a dangerous externality; society as a whole stands to benefit from minimizing the transmission of STDs in prostitution. Far was a beautiful woman, but I was immune to her charms. Being male, I put the women I interviewed at ease: they talked to me as 'just another client.' But being gay and knowing myself, I was safe from any nervousness or distraction that might have come from spending time with women whose sex appeal is their livelihood. Far's story, shared in her tastefully decorated room in a clean brothel and a quiet red-light district - worlds apart from the whorehouse alleys of American cinema - marked the beginning of my journey through Singapore and the Netherlands. In both countries, officials told me that their respective governments believed that prostitution would always exist in human society. They cited unsuccessful bans in countries like the United States and argued that the most prudent course of action was to regulate prostitution and control its negative effects, not ban prostitution and drive it underground. In Singapore, officials explained that prostitution is not a criminal offense and that the government offers STD testing to prostitutes but denied that testing is mandatory. However, journalists, pimps, prostitutes, and one retired vice officer reported that the government actually licenses prostitutes and requires biweekly STD testing. I also learned from written sources that a recent, government-funded '100% condoms for oral sex' campaign has dramatically reduced the number of oral infections detected in prostitutes. By quietly regulating prostitution, the Singaporean government seems to strike a balance between utilitarian pragmatism and recognition of the country's conservative moral climate. Oral sex between a man and a woman is still illegal unless followed by 'natural' intercourse; in 2004, a convicted oral sex recipient was jailed for 12 months. Meanwhile, the sale of chewing gum was only recently and partially decriminalized. Singapore is surrounded by water, but Holland has more permeable land borders. As a result, the Dutch government's emphasis in regulating prostitution is on combating human trafficking. The Netherlands legalized brothels five years ago, and both officials and prostitutes report that communication between prostitutes and police has improved. No longer fearing arrest, prostitutes are more likely to report suspected cases of trafficking. Adult prostitutes are also more likely to turn in underage prostitutes in order to eliminate unauthorized competition. The Netherlands' relatively liberal moral climate allows the government to openly discuss its policies but prevents mandatory licensing of prostitutes: opponents object on privacy grounds. In both Singapore and the Netherlands, I found compelling evidence that careful regulation combats prostitution's negative effects, such as STD transmission and human trafficking, more effectively than American-style prohibition does, raising a challenging moral question. In the U.S., the sale of sex is widely perceived as immoral, but is it not immoral to allow unsuspecting citizens to be given STDs and innocent humans to be trafficked, by driving prostitution underground?
