Prostitution is widely believed to be one of the oldest jobs in the world, dating back to Babylonian times (around 600BC)! It has though, relatively recently, taken an turn for the worst and has become largely frowned upon in modern society and in the eyes of the media, which is probably why so many of these reviews are dead against the idea of legalising the age old trade of prostitution. Personally I believe that prostitution should be legalised, and my reasons for my point of view are below.

Firstly, as you might expect, prostitutes are particularly susceptible to picking up sexually transmitted diseases, some of which are more serious than others, however are large majority are very treatable if they are diagnosed early or at all. Since prostitution is currently legal there aren't the facilities available to prostitutes who work illegally at the moment to be treated for these diseases. Legalising prostitution would allow prostitutes to be screened regularly for STI's. Whilst people might argue that it would be a prostitutes own fault for contracting a disease. This may be true, but it is a very short sighted. Future "legitimate" partners of prostitutes will then also be put at risk of contraction disease and infections, which would eventually cause a chain reaction of people being infected, no doubt causing many, many more people to be infected further down the line.

However I am not saying that there will be no disadvantages of legalising prostitution. Arguably it would allow society to become sleazy and give the country a reputation accordingly. That's why if I was the one passing the act legalising prostitution I would add a conditional clause, which states that people who are currently working as prostitutes must be searching to find another job, with aid and assistance provided by the government.

We must not forget that there has been decades of negative media attention and social rejection towards prostitutes. Passing legislation to legalise prostitution will not reverse this. Women (or men) who are prostitutes will not suddenly be seen in a different light by society, thus the job will be no more desirable. It is highly unlikely that the amount of people who work as prostitutes would suddenly experience a massive rise.

In conclusion, I think what we forget is that people who are prostitutes generally do not do so because it is an easy life or good money. It is quite the opposite, and in fact I personally believe that if research was done we would find that a large percentage of prostitutes only do the job so that they can supply their families with money and also (unfortunately) to feed drug habits. Neither of these problems are impossible to solve, and we need a kick start to begin the healing of them. The legalisation of prostitution may be exactly what is needed