# Should Prostitution Be Legal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 16, 2012, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-prostitution-be-legal/622067 "2012-05-16T06:42:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-prostitution-be-legal/622067/181 "2012-05-28T01:49:21Z")
FinnAgain didn’t bring up a lack of logic (though he did earlier in the thread, where I misinterpreted one of his posts). We’re just operating from a different paradigm. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-prostitution-be-legal/622067/182 "2012-05-28T07:43:17Z")
> [@gamerunknown](#): > > The principle is entrenched, but I wouldn’t describe it as well-established. Semantics. It’s the law without a doubt. > [@](#): > > My fundamental premise for all occupations are that they should be voluntary and I think rent and property diminish the capacity for voluntary employment (I tend to argue the standard in regards to pornography and prostitution due to the special plea society employs for sex). The truth of that premise is independent of whether the courts consider it a valid legal defence in cases of theft Well clearly they don’t consider it a valid legal defence in case of prostitution, either. Unlike the others here, I have no difficulty with the premise that labour, in general, is coercive to some extent. I don’t accept that a special case can be made for sex work purely on the basis of a special plea that “society employs”. Not only is \*that \*an argumentum ad populum, but it essentially measures the extent of coercion by its outcome rather than by the number or degree of the coercive elements themselves. Which I’m sure is some other type of logical fallacy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-prostitution-be-legal/622067.md?page=9)