Doctor maintains professional integrity
"It's not such a big leap, really," the doctor told a New Zealand newspaper recently. "It's about providing a private service and maintaining confidentiality, which is what my medical practice was about."
Neil Benson believes there are similarities between the world's oldest profession and medicine. "Everything I have ever done is high quality. The standards of my medical practice were high and that will cross over to the brothel environment."
What diverted the doctor—a general practitioner in New Zealand, who trained at the University of British Columbia in Canada—from healing to hedonism?
Benson closed his Coopers Beach clinic last year after a dispute with health officials over the lack of financial and community support.
When someone in the sex trade asked him to rent out the defunct clinic, the doctor told the newspaper, "I thought, why don't we run it ourselves?"
In the end, it's a business proposition, he said. After all, prostitution already exists in the community. "At least this way it gives sex workers a quality working environment where they are treated well."
He said he will employ "beautiful, experienced professional girls" in the upscale bordello, which will cater to locals, as well as to tourists. "It means the men that visit the brothel will have some assurance they are getting a higher quality service than they would get elsewhere."
New Zealand legalized prostitution in 2003, and Benson was granted his brothel license in January. The married father of four said his family supports his new enterprise.
In the end, as Peter Foley, chairman of the New Zealand GP Council, pointed out, the change of business simply proves that "medicine isn't the big earner people think it is."