| JWeinCom said:
Look over your list, and see which cause harm. Five can be eliminated immediately. Children are simply not capable of making such decisions and defending their own self interests. Four is pretty clear, but a little less so. We know it is genetically bad to reproduce, and we know it can easily lead to abuse of power in immediate families. Of course, what incest is varies from culture to culture. Pretty much everyone agrees that parent/child incest is clearly harmful, but marrying your second cousin (or even first) varies quite a bit. Three is kind of iffy. You can probably make a case for harm based on STDs, and the danger of women being dragged into the industry. The act in and of itself may not be harmful on an individual basis, but it may be harmful for society at large. Two should simply be legal. It causes far less harm than similar legal substances, and the harm caused by its prohibition is greater than the harm of the actual substance. I don't really know enough about polygamy to speak of it or how it effects children. What I would say is that it makes for a complicated legal arrangement, that would not be very workable. |
When people say incest, I always assume it means sibling or first cousin.
But your response to three is what I completely disagree with. Look at all of the problems with prostitution. The prostitutes themselves are often times seen as less than people, and the "you killed a hooker" joke is so common, that it's not even thought of as offensive. Then there's the std problem, because it's not a regulated industry, and the fact that some people are sold into the sex trade illegally and against their will. If this was turned into a legitimate and regulated industry, like how it is in Nevada, these problems would largely go away.
