“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,” Pan Zheng reports for Shanghai Daily.
Zheng reports, “‘I wanted to buy an iPad 2 but could not afford it,’ said the boy surnamed Zheng in Huaishan City. ‘A broker contacted me on the Internet and said he could help me sell one kidney for 20,000 yuan.’ 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.”
“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,” Zheng reports. “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.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: That’s crazy! Who would part with a kidney for anything less than an iPad 3?
And, no, this most certainly isn’t what Steve Jobs had in mind when promoting organ donation.
Related article:
Apple CEO Steve Jobs joins Schwarzenegger to push California organ donor registry (w/ video) – March 19, 2010
Ata boy, save one for the iPad3
*joke
And where are the parents in this situation?
Yay! Push Notifications have returned!
WTF MDN?! This isn’t Apple news. This is just muck raking.
you’re only whining coz you donated one of your nuts for a Windows 7 Phone!
Dear MDN, please consider a different take.
It’s a more sad story than funny. I wish the poor boy and the society that encourages this more sanity and hopefully he will regain health.
Meanwhile, dear Apple, buy the kid next version of iPad before things may turn to something more awful than it already is.
And you were worried about your kids sneaking off to get a tattoo.
Seriously tragic story of criminals taking advantage of children. If the boy survives, Apple should send him each new iPad version for free.
I couldn’t agree more with you on this.
If Apple does that, every single stupid kid on the planet will do the same, iPad for life…
btw, If I’m not wrong, a kidney cost $200k…
Agree wholeheartedly – do *not* reward foolish behavior.
That’s awesome. That would be like, 400 iPads. Might actually be worth it.
Apple isn’t the US government. They (Apple) reward creative, innovative hard work, not stupidity
I’d sell a kidney before I’d get a tattoo.
This is sick- why not just steal one (iPad)? The kid is a kid- those responsible for this should get life- or death.
“Why not just steal one?” Sure, that’s the solution… Are you serious?! There is enough crime going on without suggesting that as the logical alternative to selling an organ.
The *correct* answers to this dilemma are: (1) either live without the iPad, or (2) work and save for it.
This whole story sounds very fishy to me, anyway.
First of all, this “kid” was 17 years old. That is plenty old enough to know better than to sacrifice a kidney for an electronic entertainment device. Not too many decades ago, boys that age and younger were dying in the trenches of WWI and WWII. Go back some more decades and kids were getting married at age 13 and 14. There is nothing magical about becoming 18 years old that suddenly gives a person wisdom and common sense.
I feel for the kid. But life can be tough and learning by experience is sometimes very painful.
This is incredibly sad story.
Uhm, yeah.
And the award for Fanboy of the decade goes to…
Natural selection at work.
This is a very sad story. Not a joke at all. I don’t understand why MDN could make that take.
At least he got paid.
We have politicians trying to give away their body parts just to get someone IN their pad…..(they even advertise).
A tragedy, undoubtedly. However, what message would giving him each new iPad send to him and other misguided kids?
He’s lucky he didn’t sell his kidney for a Xoom or a Galaxy Tab.
Bam!
He got roughly $3016.41 in Canadian Dollars for his one kidney. In Canada he could buy 3 64g 3G. iPad 2 with smart covers. This a very sad story were materialistic needs out ways common sense. This young man could wind up having a shorter live span than the IPad 2.
I suggest his parents save up an get their #1 son a brain transplant.
This is a really sad story. I mean Apple does such a great job making their product desirable that a child in a country of many poor people that could never afford something like this (not to mention China taxes the hell out all of their imports) and a kid just want’s a really cool piece of technology. I’d hope that Apple catches this story and does something privately (so that others wont try this) and helps that family out with medical needs. It’s the least a liberal company like Apple could do.
Riiiiiiiight. And there really were mutated Russian children in the flying saucers at Roswell. They were sent by Stalin. No, honest. It’s true.
A kidney…. pffff.. I sold my soul for my iPad 2!
How in cash for your soul?
Signed Satin
I love you Satin, you`re so light and lustrous.
Talk about having a bad day. it would have been easier to steal it.
Here’s the link to the original article at the Global Times and a picture of the scar:
http://life.globaltimes.cn/life/2011-06/661408.html
Says he came home with a laptop and an iPhone, not an iPad2. Sad story if true.
And, in the picture, I realized it was a screengrab from the Youku, Youtube copy, website. The video is on their tech page:
http://bit.ly/mT6gHf
Over 2200 comments, 1300 thumbs up, and 9600 down.
It’s not loading for me, probably due to demand.
Oh boy photos! That makes it real. I just saw photos of Jimmy Hoffa driving a new Lexus so you know that photos don’t lie!!! Talk about proof? Wow!
Come on, this is just a new urban legend you are starting. Have you verified it? Snopes?
If he wanted an iPad and didn’t mind giving up body parts he should have joined th US military. He’d get benefits too
This story is inconsequential. The real dirty secret is
that China, with a population of 1.33+ billion, is a
vast harvesting ground for body parts and organs
for people with money for doctors and ‘agents’
with no scruples.
And the Tea Partiers rejoice.
I had my right kidney removed (kidney cancer) about 5 years ago and they went through my right rear, at the bottom of my rib cage to remove it.
His scar is in the front. To me, it seems strange but hey, I’m not a doctor.
The story reeks of bullshit.