Chinese Boy Trades Kidney For An iPad 2, Would You Do The Same?

By: Don Caldwell


How much is your body worth to you?


Excerpts italicized:


A teenager in Huaishan, Anhui Province has sold one of his kidneys to buy an iPad2 tablet computer, as reported by SZTV on June 1.


The 17-year-old man surnamed Zheng, a freshman in high school, got connected with a kidney-selling agent through the internet, who pledged to pay him 20,000 yuan ($3,084.45 ) for one of his kidneys.


On April 28 of this year, Zheng went to Chenzhou, Hunan Province to have his kidney removed under the supervision of three so-called middlemen, and received 22,000 yuan ($3,392.97). Then he returned home with a laptop and an iPhone.


Zheng's mother discovered her son's new electronic products and forced him to reveal how he came to afford them. Then she took Zheng to Chenzhou and reported the matter to local police. The three agents' telephones have not been answered since that time.


Chenzhou 198 Hospital, where Zheng had his surgery, has no qualifications for kidney transplantation, according to SZTV reporters.


The hospital has denied any connection with the kidney removal operation, and has said that its urology department is contracted to a businessman in Fujian.

How important is your body? Your health?


It seems easy for most of us to say that we would never trade something as valuable as a kidney for an
iPad, but are we capable of making a similar decision?


What if instead of an iPad, a new car was offered (or how about a really nice car, or a house…..or 10 million dollars.)? 


What is the difference between selling an organ for a possession and selling your health for vanity? How many people choose to use tanning beds (when is KNOWN by the medical community to increase your risk for cancer several times over)? 


What about people who choose to smoke or alcoholics? Obesity?


In all of these things we choose to use our bodies for pleasures of the moment even as it slowly destroys our bodies.


This at the very least brings attention to aspects of our culture that celebrate possessions above so much (look how excited / vain people get about their smartphones…)


This young man may be losing a kidney…but what do you lose by chasing possessions or money yourself???


Could that be just as meaningful of a loss?

(ORIGINAL LINK) Teenager sells kidney for iPad 2 - Global Times (China)