A Chinese couple have been reunited with their baby son after he was allegedly sold to traffickers by a doctor at the hospital where he was born.
Dong Shanshan (董姍姍) gave birth to the boy in Fuping, Shaanxi Province, in the middle of last month. Police said an obstetrician, Zhang Suxia (張淑俠), persuaded Dong and her husband, Lai Guofeng (來國峰), to give her the baby, claiming he would not survive for long because of congenital illnesses.
Seven more families have now come forward saying Zhang trafficked their babies in similar circumstances. The doctor was among six suspects in custody, police told Xinhua news agency. She is accused of selling the boy for 21,600 yuan (US$3,528) to two men who then sold the child on to a buyer.
The baby was rescued in neighboring Henan Province and returned to his parents after a DNA test confirmed his identity, the China Daily newspaper reported. He appeared to be in good health.
Police in Huaxian County in Henan said the baby’s buyer, Zhu Shouqi, spent 60,000 yuan on the boy because he had three daughters and wanted a son.
Lai told the Beijing Times: “We trusted [Zhang] as she was from the same village as my father and had been doing the obstetrical examinations for my wife.”
However, when Zhang failed to show them the body of their child they contacted police. Doctors at another hospital told Dong she did not have the diseases she had supposedly passed on to her child.
The director and two deputy directors of the hospital have been removed from their positions.
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