Agree or disagree: Government laws should not deal with moral issues such as prostitution, gay marriage, etc?

Question

But before you answer: Is prostitution a moral or societial issue? Disallowing prostitution could cut down on STD's and cut funding to other socially harmful activities.

Think of other "moral issues" and decide if governemnt should keep their hands off.

Not sure if this belongs in R&S, but the statement was given to an R&S question.

Answer 1

In general, government must deal w/ moral issues, otherwise they would not deal w/ rape, murder, etc.

The morality of people cannot be determined by legislation. Morality is a product of nature and nurture. So there will likely always be prostitutes, pedophiles, murderers, rapists, batterers, necrophiles; etc, ad infinitum.

As far as disallowing prostituion reducing STDs; it in fact does just the opposite because the business is driven underground and out of the purvue of health monitoring and availability of health services. A similar thing happens with abortions. These issues are a double edged sword. We just have to decide whether we want to be cut by the ragged side or the sharp side. I opt for the sharp side, since it is a more easily repaired cut.

The federal government does not prohibit prostitution. It's a state issue. Withness, legal prostitution in some Nevada counties. Prostitution needs to be regulated in the same manner as gambling: to insure the health and safety, as best as possible, of the providers and the users. And to prevent nefarious persons from taking undue control.

Marriage of homosexsuals is a more religious issue than a moral one. A few religions regard homosexuality as a natural, genetic, anomoly and are accepting of it. In fact, in the past some religions venerated homosexuals. Homosexuality is a product of nature, and it is an anomoly because it occurs in only a very small percentage. Homosexuality is not restricted to humans. It has been quantified in other mammals and in some birds. I am certain that if it were studied more closely it could be demonstrated in all creatures that reproduce sexually. It is ludicrous to believe that with the billions of instructions required to bring a fertile egg to maturity that homosexuality could not be a viable result. We accept that some women are more masculine than other women, and that some men are more feminine than other men. Why can't we accept that some are especially more so. Heterosexuals do not understand homosexuals and vice versa. But each are a fact of life and should be recognized as such.

No, government should not abstain from addressing moral isssues. But it should do so with a clinical approach rather than right/wrong approach. The right/wrong approach far too often leads to untenable situations and unenforcable laws and regulations.

Answer 2

Disallowing prostitution would mean all brothels would be illegal and therefore unregulated, which would only increase STDs. Making something illegal doesn't make it go away.

But of course the government should deal with moral issues. Murder, for example, is a moral issue.
If you're asking whether the government should pass laws to prohibit activities that don't restrict anyone's personal freedoms, personally I think no.

Answer 3

Marriage is a legal contract; that's why you need a license. A license should be issued to any two consenting adults regardless of their sexual preferences. Anything else is inserting Biblical (or other religious) morality into the laws and that isn't quite separation of church and state.

Regarding prostitution, I guess if someone wants to sell their body, they should be the ones to decide. I'm not advocating for such sales, just pointing out how silly it is for the government to try to control what people do with their own bodies.

Answer 4

In issues if private morality, I think the government should minimize its involvement. The government has an interest in the public health aspects of prostitution, so that should be regulated. I haven't seen any data, out of countries where prostitution has been legalized, that suggest legalization has societal downsides.

Gay marriage isn't a moral issue, it's a civic issue. And the government should license same-sex couples the same way it licenses heterosexual couples. Gay marriage is a moral issue only in that it is patently immoral for the government to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and identity.

Answer 5

Actually, it can affect us in some way at times. If people enough people who were gay got married and all that, one it would just look wrong (at least to me it would) and two how are they supposed to reproduce? There is always something missing in that whole process. Going on to abortion, when was the last time that you heard the baby being aborted say they wanted to be aborted? The pastor at my church almost was but he's glad he wasn't. On top of that, three weeks after a woman gets pregnant, there is some form of a heart beat and within 9 or 10 weeks after conception, the kid can feel things. Both of those prove that (s)he is a human being growing inside mom. They may sound like a quick fix when your faced with it after either willingly having sex or being raped, but they aren't. Nobody tells you what you can go through emotionally if you get an abortion. If you get enough abortions, eventually the lady who got them will get to a point where she can never even have kids again when she really did want one. If you don't want a kid, then just give the kid up for adaption. Someone else will be willing to take care of the kid. Does this answer any of the questions for you?

Answer 6

Agree. Prostitution is the world's oldest profession, next to story teller.

Prostitution is a societal issue because it is not a moral one. Regulating prostitution actually cuts down on STDs.

BTW Those are not MORAL issues. Those are RELIGIOUS issues. Being Gay is not IMMORAL. That is a religious concoction.

Other "moral" issues:

Drugs
Video Games
Free Speech
The Bill of Rights

Answer 7

I agree.... are laws are warped because of the religious influences at the time they were written... in our evolving societies we are recognizing that the limitations place on us because of religions are not always right because they never produced justice... we can further go on to understand what is meant by morality... "the morale of the story" the lessons learned from life experience produces morality and the changes of laws should and must reflect that we as the human race can learn and evolve beyond what was learned and set in stone 2000 years ago that is like humanities childhood,

looking at what freedom means, do we limit ourselves by what the limited oppressed people of the past saw as freedom, which led to only white males having rights, or should we say that all humans regardless of sex or race are capable of making their own decisions regarding their life... People who seek to do no harm require no laws, there are natural consequences to our actions which is sufficient to guide us, who would know better about prostitution than a prostitute, but in our society we never listen to them about what if any laws should be written... that is the sickness of laws and religions on the earth... that is the injustice

Answer 8

In what way is same sex marriage a moral issue??

And, except for Nevada, there ARE laws on the books banning prostitution in all the other states. ALLOWING AND STRICTLY REGULATING prostitution will cut down on std's.

Answer 9

"Disallowing" prositution increases STD's. Countries where prostitution is legal and licensed have far lower rates of STD's from prostitutes. Likewise the "socially harmful activities", such as drugs, assault, crime etc. are also largely because prostitution is illegal.

I think the government should stay out of what consenting adults engage in when it comes to sex.

Answer 10

I always thought prostitution should be legal...
Work is work, even if you do it on your back.
I think it would better if the women worked out of houses. That way security can be provided, plus routine doctor visits, etc.

The government has stepped all over this because they think it is goes against morals, but it no less amoral than what some insurance companies are getting away these days..and the government seems fine with that..