Chinese student sells kidney to buy Apple iPad 2

A 17-year old student in Anhui Province in China sold one of his kidneys for 20,000 yuan only to buy an iPad 2, the ShanghaiDaily.com reported today.

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, the report said

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, the report further added.

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, it said.

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

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, the report concluded.