CHINA DOCTOR SELLS BABIES SCAMMED FROM PARENTS.

A doctor has allegedly stolen babies from over 50 households under the pretense of saving them from life-threatening diseases, according to police reports cited by state-run Xinhua.

On Sunday, police in Henan Province rescued a baby that had been separated from his mother, after a doctor had reportedly sold him for $3,500 to human traffickers in the bordering Shaanxi Province.

The mother, Dong Wan, had been tricked by her doctor into signing custody release forms on July 16 in a Shaanxi hospital after her doctor, Zhang Suxia, told her she had syphilis and hepatitis B and that her baby’s life was in danger and the baby needed to be cared for.

After hearing of what had happened to Dong Wan, six other families told mainland media that their babies had also been stolen soon after the doctor told them the lives of their newborns were in danger.

A mother of a woman who delivered a baby on Aug. 2 at the same hospital where the abductions had occurred said she was determined to keep her grandchild safe. “Our baby is not going anywhere! We’ll keep our eyes peeled.”

Despite hearing about the incidents, the family had no choice but to go to the same hospital. The mother said, “This is the only hospital in the county where you can deliver a baby.”

“This doctor has low scruples—putting her personal interests above everything. She ignored morals, and the law,” said Li Chunfu, a renowned doctor in China, “She lied to these families’ faces, completely not caring about their suffering. She took advantage of the patient-doctor bond and committed a criminal act.”

Netizens on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, expressed similar outrage over the baby kidnappings.

“As an obstetrician, you’re capable of committing such horrors. What kind of society is this?” commented netizen Sister Without Any Makeup.

“Is anywhere in the world still safe?” said A-Xia-Re-Bu, another netizen.

“Doctors are stealing newborn babies. Principals are raping young students. Officers are hiring prostitutes. How did society’s morals reach rock bottom?” said the netizen Looking into the Cloud and Babble.

“The wretched news of a wicked pregnant lady and her husband killing an innocent girl hadn’t even grown old when news of the doctor trafficking babies appeared,” said a netizen called Black Box Chen Liaoyu, “This land is filled with bizarre and unbelievable events.”

Hospitals sell both wanted and unwanted babies. A report from China National Radio released in June exposed advertisements listing $5,878 for a baby boy and $3,918 for a baby girl. The unwanted babies were allegedly from young working mothers who could not afford to care for them.