Introduction
The article focuses on the notion that every human being has the dignity of having been made the image of the Supreme God. It is considered the most fundamental principle every Christians’ moral life. God has bestowed an immortal soul to every humankind and the gift of intelligence as well as the reason to aid us in understanding the perfect order of things as established in His magnificent creation. Additionally, God has given the humankind freedom to endeavor as well as love the things that are true, beautiful and good. Nevertheless, all humanity suffers the ramifications of the original sin which tend to darken the human mind and weaken the willingness to do the right thing, hence leading to sin. Baptism liberates the humankind from sin, but it cannot deliver them from the impacts of the sins. It is in the human nature to have the strong drive towards doing the right deeds sin, we are all in the Gods images. Nonetheless, there is also the darker compulsion toward evil due to the impact of the original sin. Amidst all these human imperfections, there is the appreciation of value, the goal of human life as well as dignity. The human life is sacred since it unites the physical and the spiritual aspects of every individual.
Additionally, the article reflects on the practice of freedom which is concerned with morality as well as moral obligation (Davy 1). The human freedom is a given ability to become who God created us to be and exercise in His eternal union. However, human trafficking has been a vice that has contradicted the essence of the practice of freedom. Human trafficking is considered to be the modern slavery. The rampant selling and buying people stand as alarming issues facing the present-time humanity. The dire need to exploit the human race is the primary reason for the emergence of human trafficking. The global as well as social setting that facilitates the demand for human trafficking tends to complex. The perpetrators of human trafficking rip off the cultural backgrounds, targeting the most venerable in the society especially those living with the disability (Bradley-Levine and Carr 1).
Conscience
A clear conscience is a fundamental element in the moral teaching of a Christian. Conscience is considered to be the judgment of reason through which human beings can identify the moral quality of a definite act. Conscience is a representation the general capability that people have to differentiate what is right and what is wrong as well as the particular judgment, human being makes in certain circumstances about actions to be taken or actions already taken. Human trafficking has no a clear conscience in it since it is aimed at suppressing the practice of freedom (Bradley-Levine and Carr 1). The decision to oppress individual persons to satisfy personal gratification fails to adhere to the moral theology and the social justice. According to the theory of moral development, conscience is broken down into six distinctive stages; Fear of punishment, what will I get out of it, need to be liked, acting according to law, the consensus of society and the demand for justice. Individuals who exploit others through human trafficking are seen to base their decisions on the second stage of the theory of moral Development.
This stage of conscience involves individual performing acts that are meant for personal gains as well as any financial benefits they will receive. Human trafficking is beneficial to a small portion of persons that is the traffickers who are purported to be the evil members of the society. The second phase of conscience is considered to be a negative stage in the decision-making process as illustrated by the human trafficking business.
Natural Law
The natural law is only understood by reason, since it has not been put on any record. Natural law is also referred to as the moral law since it relies on the actions of human beings that entirely involve the act of free will. The moral law is meant to ensure that natural peace is maintained as well as equality among individuals. Moreover, the natural law protects the human beings from a prejudiced rule in preference to being a ruling force over the people. In the course of the human history, slavery, which is the equivalent of modern human trafficking has been predominant. It was challenging to reason slavery under the natural law, hence the Catholic Church came to accept some types of slavery as a social aftermath of the original sin. Nevertheless, the power of freedom which is a crucial part of the natural law causes the human being to mistreat other people. As human beings, for good prevails over evil and ensure there are freedom and equality among all individuals, we must strive in ensuring that the right to free will enable us to do good ("Morality ").
Catholic Social Teaching
The Catholic Church boasts of a long-standing social justice teaching. The Catholic social teaching is widely used as the framework to assess relationships. This framework has a set of principles meant for reflection, criteria for the judgment as well as direction for the appropriate course of action. The primary elements of the Catholic Church teaching are:
The world is God’s creation
Men and Women are created in the image of God
Human beings are expected to be in the right relationship will all individuals as well as the environment.
Life is sacred for every living human being is sacred and has dignity.
Solidarity is considered a core social principle. All human beings are born to be social beings through the co-operation of their parents according to God’s plan. Individuals’ grow their strength as well as knowledge is attributed to their relation with the others. There are numerous present -day works by the Catholic social teaching on the efforts to eradicate the human trafficking menace. The primary moral teaching of the Catholic Church is that every single person is created in the resemblance of God and portrays His image, hence, as human beings, we reflect the Holy image of God’s creation. This notion does not necessarily indicate that all human beings are sacred, but instead express the image of God in their intellectual nature, spiritual and morals.
Subsidiarity is a fundamental principle which recognizes the family as the building cell of any society. This law dictates that those communities that are at higher levels of the hierarchy should respect the communities on the lower level of the hierarchy. The fewer individual mostly perpetrates human trafficking in the community who happens to have an advantage over the rest. The usual victims of human trafficking are, the less fortunate in the society trapped in poverty. Human trafficking businesses have, to a large extent violated the principle of subsidiarity since the needy and poor in the society are being forced into modern slavery for the gains of a group of individuals. (Bradley-Levine and Carr 1).
Conclusion
Human trafficking is considered to be the modern slavery. The rampant selling and buying people stand as alarming issues facing the present-time humanity. The dire need to exploit the human race is the primary reason for the emergence of human trafficking. The global as well as social setting that facilitates the demand for human trafficking tends to complex. The perpetrators of human trafficking rip off the cultural backgrounds, targeting the most venerable in the society especially those living with the disability. The human life should be respected for it the representation of the divine image of God. It is considered a social injustice to oppress other people who are venerable. The Catholic social teaching has numerous principle meant to safeguard the integrity of every human life.
Work Cited
Bradley-Levine, Jill, and Kari Carr. "Critical Theory And Catholic Social Teaching: A Research Framework For Catholic Schools". Journal of Catholic Education 18.2 (2015): 27-42. Web.
Davy, Deanna. "Understanding The Support Needs Of Human-Trafficking Victims: A Review Of Three Human-Trafficking Program Evaluations". Journal of Human Trafficking 1.4 (2015): 318-337. Web.
"Morality." Usccb.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 6 Apr. 2016.
