On Tuesday, August 6, 2013, a spokesperson for the top health commission of China said that people allegedly involved in selling newborn babies to human traffickers are morally degraded individuals, as well as intolerable. The National Health and Family Planning Commission has demanded severe punishments for those people.
The commission also said that it intends to impose stricter medical service management, as well as strengthen medical ethics education across the nation in order to prevent such cases in the future. Local police in Beijing said that a few newborn babies were sold to human traffickers by an obstetrician with the surname Zhang, in Fuping county of Northwest Shaanxi province in China.
The local authorities said in a statement that these incidents have exposed loopholes in some medical facilities and also lack of legal awareness of a few medical staff members. The authorities went on to say that this case has severely infringed upon the interest of people and damaged the professional image of medical staff.
Five suspects, including doctor Zhang, were involved in the case and have been detained on the suspicion of human trafficking. The head of the hospital and two of her deputies were fired on August 4, 2013. The police said that a baby was later returned to his parents on August 5, 2013, after DNA tests confirmed the identity of the child.
Photo Credits: CNN
