Opinion | Robert Kraft arrest: should prostitution be legal? The Patriots owner and the moral complexities of paying for sex
- The New England Patriots owner was arrested and charged in a prostitution sting in the US. While many have condemned his actions and prostitution’s ties to sex trafficking, some are calling for a rethink of the larger issue at hand
Society’s ethical compass has a way of shifting fault lines on major issues.
Take the war on drugs. A decade ago, popular opinion was that stern enforcement was the answer. Most people were vehemently against legalisation and even decriminalisation of any type of illegal substance, including marijuana. Fast forward to 2019 and a sea change has taken place.
The International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) last October urged the United Nations to seriously rethink its strategy on drugs, saying the sale, use, criminal trafficking and associated deaths have risen, not fallen, in the past decade, largely due to current policies of enforcement over harm reduction. The IDPC called the war on drugs a lost cause and, essentially, a “war on the poor”.
The same tide has turned when it comes to gay marriage. Nearly 30 countries have now legalised civil unions for homosexuals, with many more mulling their options, which is more than triple the number it was a decade ago.
