The reduction of the human person to a thing to be owned and manipulated

…is what is known as “slavery”. It is evil when we do it in “for profit” prisons and it is likewise evil when we do it to human beings too small and defenseless to speak for themselves.

One very servicable definition of sin is the reduction of persons to things and the exaltation of things above persons. It is the essence of idolatry and murder, of theft and blasphemy, of greed and slavery. It underlies abortion, torture, and lust, as well as denial of a just wage, pillaging of the earth, grinding the faces of the poor, and contempt for the alien, orphan, and widow.