UK Nurses Urge Legal Prostitution, Clean Uniforms
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James Joyner | Wednesday, April 27, 2005 |
Decriminalise prostitution, nurses urge (Guardian)
The Royal College of Nursing has called on the government to decriminalise prostitution to protect the health of vulnerable women and men who feel unable to access NHS and social services. After an impassioned debate yesterday, the RCN’s annual congress in Harrogate voted by a majority of more than four to one for a change in the criminal law.
Union officials said they would begin urgent consultations with police, local authorities and voluntary bodies about how best to halt prosecutions for soliciting, advertising or running a brothel.
[...]
About 95% of street prostitutes had a history of drug abuse, delegates heard. Many entered the profession under 18 because they were vulnerable. They were reluctant to access healthcare through the normal routes because they were regarded as people operating outside the law.
Nurses demand a clean uniform on every shift to beat superbugs (Times of London)
Dirty uniforms are putting patientsâ lives at risk, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said yesterday. Calling for every nurse to be provided with a clean uniform for every shift, the RCN said that better laundry facilities, clean changing rooms and a range of other improvements were needed to bring hospital-acquired infections such as MRSA under control.
The nurses’ position on clean prostitutes was not immediately clear.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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Legalizing prostitution will lead to regulation, thence to "professionalization" and standards. Which, it seems to me, will still leave the "vulnerable" outside of the protection of the legal trade.
Not to mention that legalization would lead to unionization, and from thence to higher prices for consumers and eventual outsourcing and offshoring.
Prostitution is already quasi-legal in the UK. The only things prohibited are public solicitation, "running a bawdy house" employing two or more sex workers, and living off the earnings of a prostitute (i.e., pimping). Some cities have experimented with regulated red-light districts, thus far with no criminal effect.
Prostitutes are already unionized in several European countries, where they are also regulated. By providing valid information about disease as well as psychos, they have actually reduced by the disease and crime rates.
In Calcutta, where prostitutes are also unionized, they have the lowest rate of HIV infection of any city in India. And that's saying a lot.
If one's body is one's own, (viz. Roe v. Wade), what is the consistent legal argument against selling the temporary use of that body at the vendor's volition?
I think combining the occupations of nursing and prostitution is clearly the way to go here. Who better to guarantee she's STD-free than a registered nurse? And nursing salaries could only benefit. The healthcare policy implications are, of course, staggering.
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