Of course, men can be relegated to the status of objects just as easily, if not so numerously. Slavery in its various forms is obviously a case in point. So is militarism. The politician's obedience to the party whip is simply a submission to being used as an object - a rubber stamp vote. These things are all rather obvious but there are more insidious ways of turning people into objects - ways that seem at first sight to be laudable in the extreme.
Medical care is a case in point.
It begins as, and indeed very largely is, a laudable effort to alleviate human suffering. The doctors and nurses are commended for their efforts to heal people and it is no retreat from this commendation to say that the patient is also an object, an entity that challenges the medical and nursing skills of those involved. But some element of cool technical challenge is necessary, very often, in the patient's interest. But, as is so often the case, the higher the technology the easier it is to downplay the human personal aspect. There is fortunately an ethos of humanist common sense emerging in respect of the persistent vegetative state and the strident fuss made by the 'pro-life' party tends to be overridden both by the courts and by public opinion.