Five charged for taking teen's kidney in return for iPhone, iPad

[X Factor 1,112]

Five charged for taking teen's kidney in return for iPhone, iPad

(AP) BEIJING - Authorities have indicted five people in central China for involvement in illegal organ trading after a teenager sold one of his kidneys to buy an iPhone and an iPad.

The case has prompted an outpouring of concern that not enough is being done to guard against the negative impact of increasing consumerism in Chinese society, particularly among young people who have grown up with more creature comforts than the generations before them.

Prosecutors in the city of Chenzhou charged the suspects with intentional injury for organizing the removal and transplant of a kidney from a 17-year-old high school student surnamed Wang, the official Xinhua News Agency said late Friday.

A woman on duty Saturday at the Chenzhou Beihu District People's Procuratorate in Hunan province confirmed that prosecutors are handling the case and that the defendants are facing charges of intentional injury.

She refused to give her name and referred further questions to the city-level procuratorate's media office, where phone calls rang unanswered.

The defendants include a surgeon, a hospital contractor, and brokers who looked for donors online and leased an operating room to conduct the procedure, Xinhua said.

It said about 1.5 million people in China need organ transplants, but that only about 10,000 transplants are performed each year, fueling the illegal trade in organs.

Xinhua described one of the defendants named He Wei as being broke and frustrated over gambling debts. It said he asked another defendant to look for organ donors in online chat rooms and someone else to lease an operating room for the transplant, which took place in April last year.

He received 220,000 yuan ($35,000) for the transplant, gave the student 22,000 yuan ($3,500) and shared the remaining money with the other defendants and several medical staff involved in the operation, Xinhua said.

When the student returned home, he was asked how he could afford a new iPhone and an iPad and he told his mother that he sold one of his kidneys, the report said.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57411293/five-charged-for-taking-teens-kidney-in-return-for-iphone-ipad/

[mawilson 2,133]

He received 220,000 yuan ($35,000) for the transplant, gave the student 22,000 yuan ($3,500) and shared the remaining money with the other defendants and several medical staff involved in the operation, Xinhua said.

When the student returned home, he was asked how he could afford a new iPhone and an iPad and he told his mother that he sold one of his kidneys, the report said.

To be fair, $3,500 buys more than one iPad.

[X Factor 1,112]

To be fair, $3,500 buys more than one iPad.

The headlines were a bit misleading.

[mawilson 2,133]

The headlines were a bit misleading.

Should have been

"Five charged for taking teen's kidney in return for eight 16GB Wi-Fi $399 iPad 2s and one iPhone."

[X Factor 1,112]

Should have been

"Five charged for taking teen's kidney in return for eight 16GB Wi-Fi $399 iPad 2s and one iPhone."

Yep. But what is wrong with people to exploit a teenager. Even the Chinese government can see that this is exploitation. And they would know with their record of human rights violations.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

That's ok, it wasn't his kidney to begin with. He didn't create it all his own. Only right that others should get a piece of it!

[mawilson 2,133]

That's ok, it wasn't his kidney to begin with. He didn't create it all his own. Only right that others should get a piece of it!