A Kidney for an iPad

An iPad, an iPad,

My kidney for an iPad!

Okay, so it’s not Shakespeare, but it’s got a bit of a ring to it.

A teenager in China sold his kidney for $3,500. He then went out and did what any kid who’d just sold his kidney would do: he bought an iPad and an iPhone. His mother reportedly arched an eyebrow when he showed up with the new toys, and managed to badger the truth out of him.

Folks, the future is officially here. We don’t have flying cars or hovering skateboards, but there is a black market for organs. Can androids be far behind?

What’s even more astonishing about this is that you can actually sell your organs for gadgets. Wasn’t this the plot of a movie not too long ago? I want to say Repo! The Genetic Opera, but maybe that’s just wistful thinking. It’d be a fun comedy, wouldn’t it? Kid wants an iPad so he sells a kidney. The iPad turns out to have state secrets on it, and he winds up chased by the FBI, the mafia, and maybe aliens.

Hmm. Maybe I’m remembering an episode of South Park, not a movie.

Jokes aside, the actual story is pretty interesting on its own. A broke gambler decided to make a little cash via “illegal kidney trading.” As an aside, I love the leap in logic there: “I’m broke…I know! I’ll exploit organ donors!”

He formed a network of contacts, and sought out potential donors via chat rooms. He had a surgeon and other medical staff on hand to perform the operations. They’ve all been charged, but from the scant research I’ve done thus far, this seems to be a growing problem in the provincial areas of China.

The kid at the center of all this “now suffers from renal insufficiency and his condition is deteriorating.” I have to wonder if he’s on the transplant list.

I also can’t help picturing Eric Cartman. Selling your kidney for an iPad is a very Cartmanesque thing to do.

I don’t know what to think about all this. I feel bad for the kid; that iPad is going to be obsolete sooner rather than later, and his kidney might have lasted decades. Maybe I’m just sheltered, but it seems like there’s other things you could buy if you sold something as important as a kidney.

Or maybe I just prefer PCs to Macs…