Rejecting the Choice Paradigm: Rethinking the Ethical Framework in Prostitution and Egg Sale Debates

Abstract

In recent decades debates about exploitation have tended to be subsumed by debates about choice and autonomy. Part of the intention behind this move was to empower women and make them ‘agents’ rather than ‘victims’; however, recasting the debate as one of ‘women’s choices’ has tended to obscure, and even justify, injustice. The focus on ‘choice’ has silenced other ethical concerns – in particular concerns about the ethics of practices and about the content of choices – concerns which are far more ethically important than whether or not consent is valid. What matters most is not whether something is chosen but what it is that is chosen and whether it is worthwhile and beneficial, or at least not detrimental, exploitative, and destructive. However, although obvious, the focus on choice as the ethical standard has obscured this and reduced ethics to choice. This chapter will address this issue and argue that to focus only on what is ‘chosen’ and ‘consented to’ is misguided and worse ignores more important ethical issues. It will explore the choice paradigm and its ‘silencing’ and ‘trumping’ effect, using the examples of prostitution and egg sale throughout and will offer five arguments for rejecting the choice paradigm.