What would you give for a brand, spanking new iPad2?
I don’t know if this story is true, but it has been reported by legitimate news outlets and it’s quite amazing.
There have been reports that some college students in south China have sold sperm so they could buy an iPad2, but one teenager in the east, Anhui Province, went even further.
He sold a kidney to buy an iPad2.
The Apple iPad2 sells for 3,688 yuan to 5,288 yuan and the iPhone for 3,999 yuan to 5,999 yuan on China’s mainland depending on the model, according to Chinese media.
A 17-year-old named Zheng reportedly got 22,000 yuan — that’s $3,393 in American dollars — for his kidney.
He went to Chenzhou City in nearby Hunan Province for the surgery, arranged by a broker he contacted on the Internet.
Zheng’s parents didn’t know about all this, of course. Zheng’s right kidney was taken out in the Chenzhou No. 198 Hospital.
The teenager got his money and bought a laptop and an iPhone before going home. Shame — didn’t get that iPad2 after all, it seems.
His mother reportedly got suspicious because her son was not in the best of shape — and there was this ugly red scar he hadn’t had before.
She learned of the operation and contacted police, but they couldn’t find the illegal organ broker.
Wait, this gets weirder.
No. 198 Hospital isn’t qualified or equipped to do organ transplants. Officials from No. 198 said they knew nothing about the whole deal — they’d simply rented the operating room to a businessman from Fujian Province.
Not only is the hospital not geared up to do transplant surgery, the only surgical equipment it has is for doing circumcisions.
Apparently, they do things differently in China. In fact, China made selling and buying organs illegal only four years ago.
You have to wonder about this conversation.
“Zheng, where’d you get the computer and the phone?”
“Aw, mom, everybody’s got these. I wanted them, too.”
“Zheng, there’s something you’re not telling me. where’d you get the money? This stuff is expensive and you’re just a high school kid? And where’ve you been since last Friday, anyway?”
“All right, mom, you got me. I sold a kidney.”
“No, don’t make up lies. Where’d you get the money for this?”
“Mom, really! I sold a kidney. Look, see?” he says as he raises his shirt so she can see the scar.
“Young people can be overwhelmed by its use for game playing and can do something stupid if their parents don’t buy them an iPad," said a Chinese sociologist.
Nowhere in any of the reports I’ve read does it mention how long after the kidney harvesting surgery Zheng went home. I mean, is this a same-day out-patient deal? I have the feeling if you lose a kidney, you’d be a hurting pup for a couple days, no?
This reminds me of the urban legends about guys being picked up by hot women, being drugged and waking up in a bathtub full of ice with a note telling them their kidney had been harvested while they were unconscious. Yikes!
But poor Zheng. There were no hot women. Just a computer and an iPhone.
So, what would YOU do for an iPad2?
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