Doctor accused of selling 7 infants faces trial

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's involvement in baby trafficking and criminality across many provinces, exposed by a court in northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Monday, has hit a national nerve.

The case before Weinan Intermediate People's Court is that Zhang Shuxia, a doctor with Fuping County Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, sold seven babies, one of whom died, to human traffickers after persuading their parents to give up their "sick" newborns.

Others detained, from at least four provinces in north and east China, transported the babies and found adoptive families for them.

Locally well-known and respected, obstetrician Zhang was to retire gracefully in October and enjoy her later life in comfort, but her dream was shattered by a report to police.

On July 20, a mother, Dong, suspected her baby had been abducted and reported the incident to police. Zhang was suspected of falsely claiming that her child had a congenital disease.

"The doctor told me that my son could not go to school and might endanger society as his mother was infected with syphilis and hepatitis," said the father who was kept out of the delivery room when the baby was born.

Zhang also talked to the baby's grandparents on the father's side and urged them to get rid of the baby on the grounds that boy was incurable.