A Chinese teen who sold his kidney for an iPhone a few years ago is reportedly bedridden for life.
Wang Shangkun, who was 17 years old when he sold the organ, began suffering from a decreased level of kidney function.
At the time, he sold his kidney for about $3,200 to black market organ harvesters in China. He bought an iPhone 4 and an iPad model with his cash.
Eight years later, Wang is now bedridden for life after his other kidney failed.
“Why do I need a second kidney? One is enough,” he said at the time.
Now, Wang is hooked up to machines to perform dialysis to survive his kidney failure, Fox reported.
Thing looked good for the teen before his kidney failed.
The operation took in the province of Hunan without his parents’ approval and was undertaken by doctors who were employed at local hospitals.
Reports said Wang made contact with the organ harvesters through Internet chat rooms.
“At the time, I wanted to buy an iPad2, but I didn’t have any money,” Wang said, according to state-run media outlets at the time of his fateful decision.
He added: “When I was on the Internet, I had a kidney agent send a message, saying that selling a kidney can give me 20,000.”
It is not clear whether Wang could be given a kidney transplant to treat his condition.
Organ Harvesting in China
Wang’s case shines light on the rampant organ harvesting taking place hospitals around China.
However, unlike Wang’s case, victims of the grisly practice are killed for their organs in a Chinese Communist Party-sponsored campaign to eradicate practitioners of Falun Gong, a type of meditation and spiritual discipline based on truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.
In a bombshell December 2018 report released by the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), of the 16 doctors who spoke on the record, 11 doctors from nine hospitals immediately admitted that their organs came from Falun Gong practitioners.
The calls are the latest research documenting forced organ harvesting in China, which developed as part of the persecution of the spiritual practice of Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa. In China, Falun Gong has been subjected to brutal persecution since July 1999, with widespread reports of torture, brainwashing, forced labor, extrajudicial killings, and organ harvesting in labor camps and hospitals.
A transcript from one call said, “I have another [question]. You are using Falun Gong practitioners as the donors, that is, those healthy donors, right?”
“Definitely healthy. How can it be acceptable if they’re not healthy?!” the doctor responded.
And last year, a 64-year-old Chinese woman died suddenly while in custody, and her internal organs were extracted by Chinese communist authorities, according to a report.
Thing looked good for the teen before his kidney failed.
Ma Guilan was arrested on July 4 near Qinhuangdao City in Hebei Province and was sent to a detention center for speaking to people about Falun Gong, according to Minghui.
“Several government agents with unknown identities came to the hospital, cut open her abdomen and removed her internal organs for some alleged examinations,” Minghui reported, citing state insiders. “It wasn’t clear where they were taking her organs.”