Giving away one's organs for a charitable cause is a great humane thing for a person to do. Giving it away for cash to put towards the latest gadget on the market? That's highly questionable. Even moreso when the operation, carried out at a hospital unqualified for organ transplants, leads to a deterioration of the patient's health. But in this unfortunate case surrounding a 17-year-old student from Huaishan City in the Chinese province of Anhui, he did just that for an iPad 2.
As Shanghai Daily reports, the student, who was identified as Mr. Zheng, was contacted via the Internet by a broker. The broker made an offer of 22,000 yuan (approximately $3400 USD) for one of his kidneys. The student accepted the offer and went to the Chenzhou No. 198 hospital for the operation, without informing his parents about the deal.
Upon returning home, his health began to deteriorate, and that's when he informed his parents about the transaction. Police were informed, but the identity of the broker remains a mystery. The Chenzhou No. 198 hospital was unqualified for organ transplants, and the department which carried out the operation on Mr. Zheng was contracted to a businessman in the Fujian province. Calls to the broker's cell phone number are, not surprisingly, being ignored.
A story like this, while a bit tragic, does draw up similarities to humourous scenarios portrayed by comics such as this one from The Oatmeal about owning Apple products.
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