Should prostitution be legalised and regulated?
• C J Spencer Jones, Chair, CPHMCH BMA House, Tavistock Square The BMA’s annual Public Health conference is an opportunity for doctors to air and public health issues and debate them. To challenge each other and establish what is known and what is not known. The specialty of public health takes evidence based medicine at least as seriously as other specialties, but from time to time it is important to free oneself from its fetters. On 29 March a motion was put forward from the West Midlands region (that I drew up): “That this conference believes that the key to prevention of sexually transmitted disease is two-fold: (i) school-based education that ensures that all children understand the risks associated with unprotected sexual intercourse before they become sexually active, and (ii) the legalisation and regulation of prostitution.” The first part of the motion was accepted by the conference. The second part was taken “as reference”: a polite way of saying, go back and work on this mor
