A Chinese couple are to stand trial after being accused of selling their baby in order to fund a shopping spree that included buying a new iPhone.
The unemployed couple, known only as Mr Teng and Ms Zhang will stand trial in Shanghai after they were discovered to have sold their new-born baby for 50,000 yuan (£5,070), using the money to be a new iPhone and a range of other luxuries.
Said to have listed their unborn child for sale through a range of online adverts back in June, the couple is reported to have exchanged their child after a home birth designed to hide the crime. The fee was then reportedly deposited into their account the same day.
According to Shanghai’s Jiefang Daily newspaper, Mr Tend and Ms Zhang went on a lavish shopping spree the day after trading their baby for cash, buying Apple’s latest smartphone. It has been suggested that the couple attempted to pass off Ms Zhang’s bump as a tumour to hide the pregnancy.
While the prosecution has claimed that the couple had spearheaded a “sinister conspiracy” in order to profit from the sale of their child, the defence has argued that the pair had more noble intentions when making the trade.
“We did not give the baby away for money but in order to give it more security,” the couple have been quoted as saying. They have claimed that they wanted their child to grow up in a financially stable home that could provide a strong education.
Sadly this is not the first reported incident of illegal activities being carried out in China to fund shopping sprees for Apple branded products.
Last year seven people were jailed in China’s Hunan province after a 17-year-old male sold his kidney in order to buy an iPhone and iPad. China’s Xinhua news agency stated that the teenager “confessed to his mother when suffering from renal failure after the surgery.”
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Via: TheTelegraph
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
