One of those China stories:
A 17-year-old student in Anhui Province sold one of his kidneys for 20,000 yuan only to buy an iPad 2. Now, with his health getting worse, the boy is feeling regret but it is too late, the Global Times reported today.
Then again the reason why its specifically a China story is because the means to make this exchange don’t yet exist in many other places:
On April 28 Zheng went to Chenzhou City in neighboring Hunan Province for the kidney removal surgery arranged by the broker. His parents knew nothing about it, Zheng said. He was paid 22,000 yuan after his right kidney was taken out at the Chenzhou No. 198 Hospital.
When he returned home, his mother found out and reported to the police immediately. But they could not locate the broker whose cell phone was always powered off, the report said.
It turned out that the Chenzhou No. 198 Hospital was not qualified to perform organ transplant. The hospital claimed they had no idea about Zheng's surgery because the department that did the surgery had been contracted to a Fujian businessman.
NHS, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
20,000 yuan seems an awful lot for an iPad 2. I suppose you can't really donate less than a whole kidney. That's the problem with organs as commodities; they're lumpy.
Posted by: ajay | June 02, 2011 at 03:39 PM