Kidney for iPad 2 Trade? Yikes!

To make up for the lack of interesting news on technology products lately, I want to bring to light a very disturbing piece of news. Think about this question for a second -- how far would you do to acquire Apple's iPad 2? Stand in line for hours and days? Check. Buy it marked up on eBay and Craigslist? Check. Sell a kidney for it? Chec....wait....WHAT?!

Yes, it's true. As the LA Times reports, a Chinese teen has taken the craze for Apple products to new heights. The kid, known as "Zheng", sold one of his kidneys via the black market 20,000 yuan. He intentionally did this in order to buy an iPad 2 and also a computer. It wasn't hard for his mother to notice his new gadgets, nor the sizable scar across his hip. According to the police reports that inevitably followed, the organ transplant was not authorized and likely performed by some shady third-party.

While the boy is still young, it's hard to overlook the fact that he risked his life for some gadgets. The fact that he tried to hide his ordeal from his parents further worsens the case. He could have been abducted or killed, by traveling alone to some distant city to have this operation. Thankfully he was not scammed. But this doesn't lessen the "WTF moment" associated with what he did.

Looks like the rampant materialist culture I wrote about previously has spread across the Pacific. I am sincerely appalled.