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Law and Sexual Morality

The relationship of law and sexual morality is, in some respects, a special case of the relationship of law and morality. The controversy over "morals" has progressively narrowed the discussion of public versus private morality as it was originally framed by J.S. Mill, however. Modern debate has focused almost exclusively on sexual behavior, rather than on the widest range of human conduct. Nevertheless, the conflict between public and private morality with respect to prostitution, for example, illuminates the character of the paternalistic social interference abhorred by Mill and his philosophical descendants. In part, the questions in this area involve the need of the society to protect its members and itself from harm. "The enforcement of morals by the law" is staunchly defended and ferociously attacked perhaps because society's manner of addressing the sexuality of its members does reflect its wider ethical commitments.

There is no doubt that attempts to regulate sexual behavior constitute the intervention of society into personal matters. At issue is whether society is warranted in making such intrusions. The debate about the relationship of law and morality centers on the limits of legal control over the behavior of persons within the society. The debate over control of specifically sexual behavior is therefore over the criteria for justifying social restraint of individual freedom in a given sphere of action.

According to Mill, the potential for harm to others is the "one very simple principle" that determines the right of society to regulate individual action. Society, in Mill's view, has no warrant for preventing the actions of the individual for his or her own good. The individual should feel free to pursue his or her own interests unless such pursuit does injury to at least one other person. Only when such injury occurs is society justified in intervening against the individual.

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Law and Sexual Morality. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 07:55, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1691710.html