Related Articles
What would you be prepared to do to get the latest iPhone? One couple in China sold their baby daughter, and bought one with the profits, The Independent reports.
The couple put their third child up for adoption, advertising the fact before the girl was even born. Once money changed hands, they were arrested by Shanghai prosecutors. They now face a spell in jail for alleged human trafficking.
Identified in local media only as Mr Teng and Ms Zhang, the couple had asked for between 30,000 and 50,000 yuan (£3,000 to £5,000) for someone to take their daughter off their hands.
They spent the money on an iPhone, as well as pricey trainers and luxury goods.
Though they deny their motivations were purely financial. Instead, they say they wanted someone else to bring up their daughter so she would have a better life than they could provide. “We did not give the child away to obtain profit, but to give the child better guarantees,” one of them told the Liberation Daily newspaper in China.
The couple already have two sons, which violates China’s one-child policy, and were unemployed, poorly educated, and living off their parents. When Ms Zhang found herself “accidentally pregnant” (according to Liberation Daily), she lied to her neighbours, telling them she had a stomach tumour. She then gave birth at home.
Last year, a teenager sold his kidney to buy an iPhone and iPad. And when the latest handsets launched, a fight broke out at Apple’s Pasadena store in the US. One man even hired a group of homeless people to stand in line for him and buy up a load of iPhones that he could sell on for profit.
Apple launched the iPhone 5S and 5C in China last month — that’s the first time it’s sold a handset there from day one.
Are we too enslaved by gadget lust? What can be done to curb our desires? And what’s the craziest thing you’ve ever seen anyone do to get the latest gadget? Let me know in the comments, or on our highly coveted Facebook page.
