I CANNOT allow Realist (Citizen letters, March 11) opinions to go unchallenged.

How can he believe that the act of selling one's own body can be licensed in the same way as a cosy pub selling pints of beer?

Does he not see the difference between the sexual act which is the culmination of a committed, loving relationship to downing a quick tot of whisky?

This attitude of classing sexual pleasure as a commodity to buy, sell, use and abuse has resulted in the huge escalation of horrific crimes in which even young innocents are used merely as objects for personal gratification and then cast aside, broken and lifeless.

The crimes of Burke and Hare, the grave-robbers, were regarded with universal repulsion, but now living people are regarded with less respect on a much wider scale.

Where will it stop?

'Realist' holds up Holland as a shining example.

There, pornography, prostitution, and euthanasia is licensed.

This is a defeatist legalisation of the worst instincts of humanity - a perverts' paradise.

R M Adelaide, Ribbleton Avenue, Preston.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.