Can’t Buy Me Love Essay

Rosa Zepeda
PLS 204
April 30,2015 Michael Sandel poses many great questions, not only on what money can buy but also questions the ethics around such items being able to be bought and if such markets should exist. Sandel gives an extensive list of examples in which there is a market for, such as, relationships, awards, speeches, sterilization, prison cell upgrade, etc. In keeping sandels approach I searched and found two examples in which a market exists and question if those markets should exist. I will examine the marketization of brothels in the Canadian providence of Ontario and the market for organs. With my two examples I will examine the political, moral, and ethical issues as well as the demand for supply of such markets. Legalized brothels essentially legalize prostitution with the reasoning that brothels are establishments of business where sex workers provide sexual services to their patrons for pay. The top courts in Ontario recently legalized brothels saying “Canadian prostitution laws unfairly discriminate against prostitutes and their ability to work in safe environments” (Paula Newton, CNN) but even with the legalization of brothels it is still illegal to solicit costumers outside in the street. To sum up the new law legalizing brothels, it is perfectly legal to sell sex in-doors inside an established as long as the workers are not outside in the street “promoting” their business. I don’t see how that would be an issue since we have known for centuries that there is a demand for sex workers. If the courts made solicitation illegal with the thought that if the sex workers aren’t outside, visible then the potential costumer won’t be tempted to buy their services, like the saying goes out of sight out of mind, but that is not logical since the potential customer will still go out of his/hers way to search for those services because a market for sex does exist. Solicitation makes street prostitution illegal but while done inside a venue which is regulated by the government in which they get monetary compensation from licenses and taxes it is perfectly legal. There are many dilemmas in the sex working industries, mostly if they are not regulated. Those dilemmas are not limited to sex slaves, diseases, crimes involving pimps, the rampant drug use in this particular industry and turf wars for example when the sex workers crosses into a street that is already claimed by a another sex worker. Other dilemmas in particular revolve around the ethics involved in the marketization of a human body in the way of sex. The problem is that these dilemma only exist because the sex industry is controledl and managed by criminals, who do not regulated the workers’ health, and they certainly don’t see if the worker is there by coercion or force and most of the time, if not all, they are taking more than half of the workers earnings. What Ontario did was fix the problems that was connected with the stigma of street prostitution and regulated it to make it a profitable and safe market. With giving sex workers a safe establishment to work in while also screening them for any transmittable diseases, it cuts down most of all the dilemmas that exist in illegal street prostitution, A proceeding judge wrote that "The record is clear that the safest way to sell sex is for a prostitute to work indoors, in a location under her control” (Paula Newton, CNN). This solution will also increasing costumers and demand since the fear of being arrested or catching a sexually transmitted disease or infection is no longer an issue. Legal brothels cause many legal battles mainly because the ethics and morals around that industry are extremely controversial. Many believe that sex even if it’s by two consenting adults should not be something that could be sold or purchased “prostitution is bad for society and harmful to communities, women and vulnerable persons” (Rob Nicholson). While