The health of women working in the sex industry—a moral and ethical perspective

Abstract

The current AIDS pandemic has thrust prostitution to the forefront of public awareness. This highlighting of the profession for public health reasons has provided an opportunity to re-evaluate the status of prostitution in the 1990s. Prostitutes provide an extensively used public service and usually do so with consent. Under present legislation most of the commercial transactions between consenting individuals are illegal and, as a result, this activity is stigmatized and driven underground. The illegality and resulting covert nature of prostitution encourages exploitation of the women and makes access to routine helping agencies such as medical care and social work more difficult. In assessing the health care needs of prostitutes the effects of the law, social morality and professional ethics on their health should be considered.