Last year, we wrote to you about a boy in China who carelessly sold his kidney in order to buy an iPad 2. With the 20,000 yuan, roughly $3,085, that he received from the illegal operation, the 17-year old boy spent the “dirty money” on an iPad 2 and an iPhone 4 – Apple’s hottest iDevices during that time. The boy eventually fell ill and the people involved in the operation were soon ordered to appear on court. Finally, after months of waiting, the Beihu District People’s Court in Chenzhou City sentenced seven out of the nine defendants to prison. Contrary to our previous report, it seems that nine and not five were involved in the crime.
Since 2007, China has banned the practice of trading human organs, except for close family members such as spouses and blood relatives. Song Zhongyu, the surgeon, and He Wei, the agent who arranged the operation, were sentenced to prison for three years and five years, respectively. According to the Shanghai Daily, Zhongyu received 52,000 yuan and Wei earned 56,360 yuan. The rest of the seven people involved received their own fair share of the transaction.
“Of the nine defendants, five were prosecuted as main culprits and four others, including two nurses, a surgical assistant and an anesthesiologist, were tried as accessories,” writes the Shanghai Daily. The defendants reportedly paid more than 1.47 million yuan to the boy’s family, therefore reducing the sentence. According to the Ministry of Health in China, around 1.5 million people in the country need transplants each year, however, only 10,000 of them on an average scale will get them. China is now planning to setup an organ transplant system to cater to the needs to its citizens.