Teen sells kidney to buy iphone

CHINA: It sounds like the stuff of urban legends, but Chinese Xinhua News Agency is reporting that five people have been arrested for alleged involvement in the removal and sale of a teenager’s kidney for transplant.

The Xinhua story said the 17-year-old student, identified only by his surname Wang, gave up his kidney for money, some of which was used to buy an ipad and an iphone.

Xinhua reported that prosecutors in the city of Chenzhou – a city of about 4.5 million people in Hunan province in central China – charged the suspects, including a surgeon, with intentional injury.

The news agency reached a woman on duty yesterday at the Chenzhou Beihu District People’s Procuratorate who refused to give her name but confirmed that prosecutors were handling the case.

Xinhua said the alleged plot organiser had gambling debts and received US$35,000 (NZ$42,000) for the kidney, out of which he paid US$3000 to the student.

The defendant also allegedly paid the medical staff for the operation, and for the rental of a medical facility.

According to Xinhua, the student’s mother uncovered the plot. She asked her son how he could have afforded an ipad and iphone, and he told her that he had sold one of his kidneys.

About 1.5 million people in China are in need of organ transplants but only about 10,000 of the operations are performed annually.