Chinese Couple Sells Baby Daughter for iPhone, Headed for Jail
A Chinese couple is facing jail time after "selling" their baby daughter and using the money to buy an Apple iPhone, according to reports on Friday.
The opulent Apple device is popular worldwide, but is especially coveted in China where the iPhone 5C goes for upwards of 4488 yuan ($730).
Identified as Ms. Zhang and Mr. Teng, the couple are said to have placed their third child in anonymous advertisements in newspapers suggesting that they would be willing to "sell" her in exchange for 50,000 yuan (over $8,000), reported the Liberation Daily. The baby was unborn at the time that the adverts posted.
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Today, the couple faces prosecution in what Shanghai officials have deemed a case of human trafficking over the illegal adoption proceedings.
Among other items purchased with the money for the child were high-end sports shoes and other goods, state media said Friday.
Defending their actions, the parents of the baby girl told police that they were seeking the best upbringing for their child and could not afford another.
"Giving away the child was not for obtaining benefits, but giving the child better guarantees," one said, according to the report in the Liberation Daily.
However, prosecutors say that the couple hatched a "sinister conspiracy" to profit from the arrival of the child, and the pair even went to great lengths to hide Ms. Zhang's pregnancy, according to Shanghai's Jiefang Daily newspaper.
The child was born at home in order to conceal her arrival, and is believed to have "sold" at only weeks or months old.
