You might recall the story of a Chinese teenager who sold his kidney so he could buy an iPad and iPhone. Thanks to the Apple angle, this made the rounds of pretty much all the press last June. There are new reports today that everyone involved in this travesty, from the surgeon to the black marketeer, has been charged with a crime.

According to the Chinese news agency Xinhua, a total of nine people have been identified and charged with participating in this crime. It’s not clear that they’ve been charged with performing an illegal transplant; Xinhua reports that the prosecutor wants them “ held criminally liable for intentional injury“. I was under the impression that the transplant surgewry itslef was illegal, but apparently that is not the case.

The Chinese authorities truly are taking this seriously. They’re punishing not just the surgeon and black marketeer, but also the nurses and the anesthesiologist who assisted in the surgery as well as the head of the urology department of the hospital where it was performed.

There’s nothing like bad press to get the attention of the authorities.

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image by Fotos Gov/Ba