Prostitution In John Stuart Mill's On Liberty

An additional rebuttal is that instead of focusing on combating trafficking through dedicating funding to organizations, some argue that groups should spend their resources on lobbying to make prostitution and red light districts legal in order to bring the issue into the light and reduce the incentives of practicing trafficking. Since prostitution would be legal, the act would be heavily monitored with strict guidelines and laws pertaining to what those involved in the business could do. The profits received from the prostitution would most likely be heavily taxed, which would reduce the amount of money in the industry and might turn people away from becoming involved because their revenue would be reduced. Others who support this argument …show more content…
This relates to the ethical theory of freedom. John Stuart Mill in his essay, On Liberty states that there are three realms of liberty: thought and opinion, tastes and pursuits, and the freedom to unite (Mill 50). Mill states that "no society in which these liberties are not, on the whole, respected is free" (Mill 50). These organizations fighting human trafficking are striving to create a free society by helping the victims pursue their own liberty through the opportunity to think their own thoughts, form and state their own opinions, pursue a life of their own choosing away from trafficking without the threat of violence from their owner or pimp, and to unite with others to get help and assistance to build the foundation for a new life away from their …show more content…
We have already come to the conclusion that human trafficking is a bad thing because of the massive amount of worldwide victims that are abused and have their rights stripped away to become a person's property, so since it is a bad thing, we are morally obligated to do something about it according to Singer. Donating any money a person might have available without becoming financially unstable, spending time volunteering with an organization, or calling a representative to request for more government funding is not sacrificing something of comparable value to help. These actions have the potential to prevent something bad from happening, such as supporting the hotline that might supply the right connections to get a trafficking ring busted or provide a counseling service to a traumatized and newly freed