My property is never worth more than a person's life.

[pnwmom]

195. I think people are bothered so much because the end of slavery

was supposed to be the end of an era in which people could be regarded as the property of other people.

Children are not the property of their parents, and they haven't been in either of our lifetimes. That is why, in divorce, they're not distributed to the parents as part of the property settlement. Instead, their future is determined in a custody agreement, which is an agreement to care for a child, not to accept ownership of a child.

Here, from dictionary.reference.com, are definitions of property -- none of which cover the situation of owning a child.

prop·er·ty [prop-er-tee]
noun, plural prop·er·ties.
1.
that which a person owns; the possession or possessions of a particular owner: They lost all their property in the fire.
2.
goods, land, etc., considered as possessions: The corporation is a means for the common ownership of property.
3.
a piece of land or real estate: property on Main Street.
4.
ownership; right of possession, enjoyment, or disposal of anything, especially of something tangible: to have property in land.
5.
something at the disposal of a person, a group of persons, or the community or public: The secret of the invention became common property.