Doctor accused of selling 7 infants goes to trial

[WedgeAntilles]

Doctor accused of selling 7 infants goes to trial

Shanghai Daily, December 30, 2013

Zhang Shuxia, who is involved in a baby trafficking scandal, stands trial in Weinan Intermediate People's Court in Weinan, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, today. Zhang was a doctor with the Fuping County Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital in the province and was detained by police in connection with trafficking of babies in August. [photo / Xinhua]

An obstetrician charged with trafficking seven infants, including a baby that died after she was sold, went to trial today in Weinan City, Shaanxi Province, according to the China News Service.

The defendant, Zhang Shuxia, 55, convinced the newborns' parents that their children had “deadly congenital diseases” and asked them to sign a document to give up the infants, according to police. Then she took the babies to her house and sold them to traffickers who later resold the babies for higher price, an investigation showed.

In one case, after Zhang sold a baby girl she got from a sanitation worker in her hospital for 1,000 yuan, the girl died and the body was discarded, police said. She was not charged in the death, however.

Six of the seven infants involved in Zhang's child-trafficking case dating to 2011 — including a set of twins — were recovered and returned to their parents.

Zhang was nabbed after she was accused of stealing and selling a newborn in July.