Man dies after selling kidney

2008-06-23 13:47

Hanoi - A student has died at his home in central Vietnam after selling one of his kidneys in China to earn money to marry his girlfriend, officials said on Monday.

To Cong Luan, a 22-year-old student at the Industrial Technical College in Ho Chi Minh City, died on Sunday at his home in a town in the central province of Ninh Thuan, according to Pham Thi Hong Phan, an official with the town's People's Committee.

"He died yesterday evening," Phan said. "He was brought home from a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City more than a month ago after doctors said he was incurable."

Luan had his left kidney removed in December at a hospital in Guangzhou, China, where he developed paralysis after the operation, according to Phan. He was brought back to Vietnam in April and was treated at a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City until his family took him home.

Luan was living in Ho Chi Minh City with his girlfriend Ho Thi Khanh Minh, 18, in 2007 when he met a woman who offered him 50 million dong (about R24 000) for his kidney, according to the newspaper Phap Luat Ho Chi Minh City.

"He did it for money"

Luan had met the woman, Nguyen Thi Thuy, 58, at a military hospital where he periodically went to sell blood, the newspaper said.

Thuy took Luan to China on December 10 2007, where a Chinese man acted as a broker to sell Luan's kidney to the hospital.

"We didn't know what he sold his kidney for, but his girlfriend told other people that he did it for money to organise a wedding with her," Luan's father, To Cong Son, was quoted as saying.

Police in Vietnam have not arrested Thuy and have not launched a criminal investigation into the case.

"We haven't launched a criminal investigation into the case because Luan himself made the decision to sell his kidney in China," said Mai Van Tan, chief of the Social Crime Investigation Department of Ho Chi Minh City. "There's not enough basis for a case."

Luan's girlfriend Ho Thi Khanh Minh is seven months pregnant, according to the news website VnExpress. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA