Last year, a Chinese teenager desperate to buy an iPad 2 sold his kidney in Southern China to do so. Now, he has been reported to have renal deficiency which means that he is facing a life-threatening decrease in kidney function. Five people have been charged with intentional injury related to the operation to extract his kidney. The teenager who is only known as Wang said that he wanted to buy and iPad 2 but the boy who lives in Anhui, one China’s poorest provinces could not afford it.
A broker contacted him on the internet and said that he could him sell one kidney for 20,000 Yuan ($3171). On April 28th, the boy went to Chenzhou City in Hunan Province for the surgery that was arranged by the broker. He was paid his money plus an extra 2000 Yuan but left without his right kidney. After that, he immediately bought not only the iPad that he wanted but also an iPhone. He only admitted what he had done after his mother questioned him about where the money to buy the gadgets came from.
Among the 5 defendants, one of them earned 220,000 yuan ($35,000) to arrange the transplant and after paying Wang 22,000 yuan, he split the remained with the surgeon, three other defendants and various other medical staff. Reports have not detailed who received and paid for the kidney in question. Reuters claims that only a fraction of Chinese are able to get transplants, which leads to patients travelling overseas for surgery and creates a black market for human organs since trading human organs has been officially banned since 2007 in China.
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