Slashdot Mirror
Chinese Boy Sells Kidney For iPad2
aquabat writes "According to Shanghai Daily, a boy from the Anhui Province desperately wanted to buy Apple's flagship tablet but didn't have enough cash. Rather than waiting to save up the money for the Apple product when it invariably gets marked down, the lad decided to sell one of his kidneys for 22,000 yuan (roughly $3,400) so he could afford one. But, surprisingly, the scenario in which the organ was harvested wasn't in the best of conditions, and the boy isn't feeling very well."
That's his own damn fault for agreeing to have some random person on the internet perform invasive surgery. Stupid actions have consequences.
I always thought ipads were offal
http://rareformnewmedia.com/
All surgery has risk. But I agree that this action was highly unethical and harmful to the patient, whose mental health issues (valuing an iPod over a kidney is not an expected attitude) should have been addressed first. Not to mention that according to TFA the hospital is not qualified to perform transplants, so the organ was probably "wasted".
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
People do pay 'big' cash for kidneys, I believe that there was even talk of legalizing the trade in places. It's not hard to see why some people would be willing to sell their own 'extra' organs for what they might see as a princely sum. Many people die from just such circumstances every year, it's a sad reality. The fact that one of the things he bought was an iPad2 is only a detail showing that his 'needs' were purely superficial and enough to get picked up as a story by Slashdot.
The force that blew the Big Bang continues to accelerate.
Compassion for stupidity only results in an increase in stupidity.
The boy has probably saved another person life. Hopefully these operations were not too botched and everyone will get to live.
One kidney? That's a bargain! Over here it costs an arm and a leg.
Cheers, Chris
According to TFA, the hospital where his kidney was removed was in fact a military one: "PLA 198 hospital", which, when questioned by the police, claimed no knowledge on the broker who arranged the deal, since the whole department was "contracted to a businessman".
Wow, if he gave Steve Jobs his pancreas his family could've gotten some shares of Apple, an iPad 2 and more Mac shit than he could shake a chopstick at. It'd save Steve the embarassment of buying his way ahead in line for another transplant.
valuing an iPod over a kidney is not an expected attitude
Anyone who's ever witnessed an Apple fanboi wouldn't be that shocked. I certainly wasn't. Dismayed, yes.. shocked, no.. this was monumentally stupid. He should have just got a cheap Chinese tablet, or used iPad, even if he was desperate for a gadget fix.
which is totally what she said
That 3G data plan will cost an arm and leg
It's pretty hard to have compassion for something so obviously stupid. If he'd sold it to help his sick mother or something that would be grounds for compassion, but he significantly shortened his lifespan to buy a tech toy which will be passe in a year's time, if not sooner.. wtf..
which is totally what she said
What it's like to own a Apple Product
It's horrible he made so great a sacrifice, so lightly. $3000 is a paltry amount for such a thing.. Man, either donate it, or get actually a decent amount for it such as $100k or so.
On the bright side... someone actually needs that kidney, and good will probably come out of this.
Maybe that's what the boy was thinking anyways... donate and help someone... get a little reward.
Trading body parts meant to last your entire life for toys that will last a few years and then be outdated, doesn't seem like a good plan. What's next... his left hand? Big toe? How 'bout some bones.
If he has kidney problems later than life, he will regret this. He might find himself on the buying side, then, I suppose, assuming he can hold out long enough.
Prostitution worked for me.
I don't think you understand. When you pay people to have sex with you, you aren't the prostitute.
I heard he was saving his arm/leg to buy the inevitable iPad3...
No sig today...
sadly, this boy will be able to circumvent Darwin by selling his left and right nut for the iPad 4 and 5; the gonads will be used to breed more greedy little stupid shits.
To be realistic most of us simply do not have an infinite amount of compassion. While yes, ultimately this is a story about a man selling his organs for things he cannot afford... It was an iPad.
Not food, clothing, shelter or even a chance to improve his lot in life just the days hottest piece of tech.
Yeah, and what's with those damn pedestrians too?!! I mean, those legs are death traps, they don't absorb the impact of a car at all. Compounded with the fact that pedestrians don't even wear safety equipment half the time, it's like they're asking to be hit by cars, trucks and buses.
100% agree.
We need to stop believing the drivel that is being shoveled at us.
All points of view are valid. (Bullshit. Some points of view have no basis in reality.)
There is no black and white, good and bad. It is all shades of gray. (Again Bullshit. Some people and ideas are just dead wrong. This is one of them.)
There must be tolerance for all our differences. ( This one is complicated. Yes. Tolerance should be practiced for most differences. No tolerance for child rape and so on. But. People tend to act as if tolerance and acceptance are equal. They are not. You should definitely be able to tell the difference between me accepting you and me tolerating your existence.)
There are many more. And compassion without reason is one.
Do not feel compassion for a person that chooses to sell their kidney for an iPad. It does them no good. It does you no good. It does society harm.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
Spoken like a true American, living your life from safety-tested cradle to carefully scrubbed and disinfected coffin, and in between using gallons of hand sanitizer and standing in line with your shoes off at the airport.
Actually the US driving test has reached the point that its stupid-easy. When I hear about people taking several attempts to pass it (at $20 each, one per day with no limit) I get a little concerned. In exchange, we have stupid road rules and enforcement because they have to be set up on the assumption that every driver is a no-talent assclown.
Contrast this to the UK drivers' test which, at least back in the 80s when I left, was long, extensive, had a limited number of attempts per year, and on which you could be failed for "lack of confidence." As a result you seemed, at least, to have far fewer completely moronic drivers on the road and could set things up with the assumption that most drivers actually knew how to drive.
Indeed, from http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/ssdataset.asp?vlnk=5180 :
The United Kingdom has a good record for road safety compared with most European Union (EU) countries. In 1999 the United Kingdom had the lowest road death rates per 100,000 population in the EU, at 6 per 100,000 of population. This compares to figures of 9.3 per 100,000 population in Australia, 8.2 in Japan and 15.3 in the USA. Across the EU, the average road death rate for children was around 2.6 per 100,000 of population - again, the UK had the lowest rate at 1.9 per 100,000.
Sometimes having to actually pass a real test before doing things that are hazardous to other people can be a good thing.
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
Looking at your posting history, you have some fairly deep-seated issues and it's fairly obvious that you're using Slashdot as an outlet. Get outside and breathe the fresh air more - perhaps move out of the city if you're stuck in one.
It's fortunate that people are more compassionate than you, otherwise you'd probably be out on the street by now. The only stupidity here is your religious understanding of the human brain as having the potential to be a perfectly rational machine rather than just another biological organ with the potential for programming and faults. This guy, if even real, is either an ignorant kid or a man with significant mental health problems, as is anyone who would destroy his body for short term thrill. Even though you and any fellow human would be better off if he were healthy, your sadism instead forces you to revel in his suffering. You're faulty, and I'm sorry for you.
tl;dr You're a buffoon and people don't even expect gratitude for their tolerance of you - how lucky are you?
Fuck you.