Teen Sells Kidney for iPad 2 [pic]

You know how sometimes people will joke around and say things like, “I’d give an arm and a leg” for something? Well, what about a vital organ… like a kidney? According to China’s Shenzhen TV and the Telegraph, a 17-year-old teenager named Zheng sold his kidney so he could buy an iPad 2 after seeing an ad offering cash for organs. In the reports, Zheng was quoted as saying: “I wanted to buy an iPad 2 but could not afford it. A broker contacted me on the Internet and said he could help me sell one kidney for 20,000 yuan.”

Zheng was able to negotiate another 2,000 CNY from the organ broker for a total of 22,000 Chinese Yuan ($3,340 USD). In addition to an iPad 2, Zheng also picked up an Apple MacBook and an iPhone.

As odd and shocking as trading a kidney for and iPad 2 might seem to Westerners, selling organs is actually pretty common in China. It’s even created a tourism-niche. People frequently come to China on “vacation” as “Transplant Tourists” and pay upwards of $100k for organs such as kidneys.

What about you? Would you ever give up an organ for a gadget? And what do you think of our little Adobe Photoshop graphic in this story? Gross or ________?
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