Prostitution: Is there anything wrong with selling sex?

Many people find it impossible to imagine how anyone could actively choose to sell their bodies, such is the deep-lying stigma attached to the ‘oldest profession’.
News stories often tell of individuals that have been forced into prostitution by traffickers or pimps, or by drug addiction or desperate poverty. But there are also stories of people like Brooke Magnanti, the research scientist who blogged positively about her experience as a London call girl under the pen name Belle de Jour.
The idea that human beings could be for sale is ethically controversial. However, sex workers often say they don’t sell their bodies but, like other workers, simply put a price on their talents and skills. They argue that, if sex work was decriminalised and destigmatised, the associated problems would mostly disappear. But there’s more to consider when debating the rights and wrongs of prostitution.