Last year the story of a teenager in Southern China selling one of his kidneys in order to purchase and iPad made its way through the headlines. Now, nearly a year later Chinese prosecuters have charged five people in an intentional injury case.

The boy, only referred by his surname Wang, now suffers from renal deficiency and his condition is deteriorating. The surgeon who performed the surgery and four others are being prosecuted according to the government-run Xinhua News Agency.

According to the Xinhua account, one of the defendants received about 220,000 yuan (about $35,000) to arrange the transplant. He paid Wang 22,000 yuan and split the rest with the surgeon, the three other defendants and other medical staff. — Reuters
Wang—from the extremely poor province of Anhui an extremely poor province— used the money gained from the selling of his Kidney to purchase an iPhone and iPad. Wang admitted to having the surgery after his mother questioned about where he got the money for his iPad and iPhone.

With only a fraction of the people who need organ transplants able to get them, a black market for human organs has emerged. Those who can afford it engage in “transplant tourism” where patients travel to other countries for the necessary operations. Others are forced to extremes, and can be prosecuted as China banned the trading of human organs in 2007.

via modmyi