I'm still trying to gather my thoughts on the topic. Since Code_Chrono spoke from his point of view on morality, I'll offer up mine as well - I don't believe in objective morals as such. There's purely nothing wrong with a set of personal values. A culture can have cultural values. A religion can have religious values. But I dislike their elevation to objective status which they don't deserve, simply by virtue of being easy to reverse by simply stating an alternative point of view on similarly-symbolic ground. What does morality flow from? Why can't marriage be a sin and prostitution be considered a superior sexual arrangement, preferable to a marriage contract? If A, why not B?
I'm not trying to demean any single point actually. From my own perspective, I also believe that marriage is right and prostitution is wrong. This, to me personally, stems from purely social and psychological influences, and an objective view of the prostitution "industry" as, shall we say, not the nicest place to be. I can recognize where prostitution could be justifyable, both from the point of view of the client and the provider. Pragmatically speaking, where prostitution is a consensual exchange between two people with no shady mediation, risks, or damaged relationships involved - why not?
Generally speaking, my own take against promiscuosity has nothing to do with morality. I believe in personal relationships as being (usually implicit) contracts to be honoured. Where hurt feelings and broken promises are concerned, I don't think there's any question that it's ETHICALLY wrong to sleep with other people, for money or not. A person who can cheat their conscience (in an ethical sense) loses dignity (in a human sense). I then believe this person to have betrayed his/her credibility and must live with repercussions of his/her actions. These repercussions are inevitable and will catch up one way or another.
Where prostitutes are concerned, I would be pragmatic. Why are they doing it? What are they doing it for? Those who are forced into prostitution are victims. What is being done to them is rightly criminal. Those who do it for money - this to me ethically depends on what the money is for. If it's something that a person requires to survive the next day, I think it's more than justifyable - better that they live with the repercussions of this than not live at all. If it's for a new iPod - well, their repercussion is rightly being called a whore. This is already going back into social values.
On personal values, I actually believe arranged marriages and searching for partners based on financial well-being or social status to be a form of prostitution.
But this doesn't really answer the question. Because I still can't talk about morals.
