Zhang Shuxia, Chinese doctor, confesses to selling patient’s newborns into human trafficking rings
She was considered a respected obstetrician, but Zhang Shuxia has confessed to telling parents that their newborns had congenital problems and convinced them to give up their children, which she sold for human trafficking.
Court papers detail how Shuxia, age 55, while working as an obstetrician at the Fuping County Maternal and Child Hospital in central Shaanxi province persuaded parents to “sign and give the babies up,”
The indictment said that from November 2011 to July 2013, she sold seven babies to middlemen who sold the babies to “couples” in central and eastern China. Six of the babies have been rescued, but one that was trafficked for $165 in April later died.
Zhang was found out when a mother suspected her baby had been abducted and reported her to police in July.
Xinhua reported that Zhang had taken the baby home with her and sold him to a man in a neighboring province for 21,600 yuan ($3,600) the same night. He in turn resold the baby to a villager in central China for 59,800 yuan ($9,900).
Several other suspects have been detained in at least four provinces, Xinhua said.
The Beijing Times newspaper called for a “fair punishment” for Zhang to deter other doctors. “It will inject the authoritativeness of law into professional ethics of doctors and will warn doctors not to take the wrong step that brings them lifelong regret,” the paper said.
Photo is a screenshot of video coverage, stating that some are calling for the death penalty – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKyWvyeK8vI