[vsp]

Originally posted by socrates
I do think there is a very great chasm between morality and legality.

As well there should be.

Legality is primarily concerned with actions that cause actual, measurable harm, typically physical or economic harm. Morality is concerned with rightness and wrongness of actions, an entirely different matter. Both morals and laws can change dramatically over time, and from place to place. When the two are mixed, strange things result.

For example, let's look at prostitution. My favorite common-sense position on prostitution comes from George Carlin:

"Selling is legal. Fucking is legal. Why isn't selling fucking legal?"

You can be arrested for performing a sexual act as a service where money changes hands, but performing the same act FOR FREE is perfectly legal. Does that make sense?

Rationale one: Prostitutes are often dirty, diseased and drugged-up, so it's a public health issue.
Response one: A promiscuous amateur can have just as many diseases and be hooked on as many drugs as a prostitute. Should police start sweeping neighborhood bars and college dormitories for signs of promiscuity?

Rationale two: Prostitutes are often underage.
Response two: Statutory rape laws exist to cover this aspect.

Rationale three: Prostitutes are often abused in many ways by their pimps.
Response three: Very true. Of course, many non-prostitute women are abused in many ways by their husbands or boyfriends. Should those women be barred from having relationships? The crime is in the action of the abuser, not the profession of the abusee.

Rationale four: Prostitution destroys marriages and relationships.
Response four: Ah, now we get to the core of it; now it's a morality issue. Tradition and religion have made a one-to-one monogamous sexual relationship the standard in US society, and prostitution changes that dynamic. (So shouldn't single, non-attached people be allowed to pay for it, then?)

Is it adultery for a married person to visit a prostitute? Sure. Are there existing divorce laws that cover that adultery, whether the third party is a prostitute or not? Sure.

I'm happily married myself, and have never paid for sex, nor do I ever plan to. But I also think that prostitution should be legal; bringing it into the open may help reduce the disease-and-drug factors. Would a majority of Americans still openly disapprove of and condemn the profession and its practitioners? Of course. But that's different than _prosecuting_ them.

I suppose the whole point is this. How do we conceptualize morality?

To me, morality is the next checkbox after legality when contemplating an action. "I'm _allowed_ to do this... but _should I_?"