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Summary A Chinese teenager sold a kidney so he could buy an iPhone and an iPad.
Five people in southern China have been charged with intentional injury in the case.The five, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency, included a surgeon who removed a kidney from the 17-year-old boy in April last year. The boy, identified only by his surname Wang, now suffers from renal deficiency, Xinhua quoted prosecutors in Chenzhou city, Hunan province, as saying.According to Xinhua, one of the defendants received about 220,000 yuan (about £22,000) to arrange the transplant. He paid Wang 22,000 yuan and split the rest with the surgeon, the three other defendants and other medical staff.The report did not say who received and paid for the kidney.The teenager was from Anhui, one of Chinas poorest provinces, where locals frequently migrate to find work and a better life elsewhere. He bought an iPhone and iPad, and when asked by his mother where he got the money, admitted selling a kidney.Apple products are hugely popular in China but are priced beyond the reach of many Chinese: iPhones start at 3,988 yuan and iPads at 2,988 yuan.Only a fraction of the people who need organ transplants in China are able to get them, leading to transplant tourism where patients travel overseas for such operations, and to a black market for human organs.China banned the trading of human organs in 2007. Several other suspects involved in the case are still being investigated.
