Transplant Tourists
June 3rd, 2011 | by Mobile Data Group |A Chinese teenager has reportedly sold one of his kidneys for 20,000 yuan ($3171) so he could buy an iPad 2.
The high school student from Anhui Province, Xiao Zhang, confessed to his mother that he was motivated to sell the kidney after seeing an internet ad offering cash to people who were prepared to become organ donors, according to the Global Times.
His mother had discovered the iPad 2 and forced him to reveal how he was able to afford the gadget.
“I wanted to buy an iPad 2, but I didn’t have the money,” the boy told Shenzhen TV. He also bought an iPhone and a laptop with the proceeds from the sale, his mother said.
Chenzhou 198 Hospital in Hunan Province, where the boy reportedly had his surgery, does not have qualifications for kidney transplantation. It has denied any connection with the organ removal however has admitted contracting out its urology department to a private businessman.
The buying and selling of organs is a growing issue in China and the government has so far failed to stamp out the practice. There have been many reports of “transplant tourists” who come from rich countries to buy much-needed organs from poor desperate people.