Meet the Chinese woman who sold four of her children for $1,500

A blind Chinese woman has sold four of her children, to pay for two others. This is necessary she said because her husband cannot hold a job.

BEJING, CHINA (Catholic Online) - According to her own admission, Du Xiurong, a Chinese woman from Shibei villiage in Sichuan province, has sold four of her children to pay for her eldest two.

Xiurong has had six children but between 2005 and 2012, she sold three girls and a boy to pay for the feeding and education of the her eldest son and daughter.

Xiurong is blind and cannot work, and her husband has trouble holding jobs. She was married off to her husband as he was the first man that wanted her, she says. She also says that her children mean a lot to her, and that she did not actually sell her children, but only charged "pregnancy fees."

For her four children, she has been paid about $1,500.

"I have no other choice. If I were not blind I wouldn't have to do this," she told a reporter. "I am not selling them out, but giving them away. I only charge a bit for pregnancy fees. I love babies, if I were capable, I definitely would bring them up. But I can't really support them. I then find good families to adopt them."

She added, "I gave out babies to families which can't give birth. They want babies and I helped them. Rich people give out money for a daughter's wedding. Middle-class people earn money for a daughter's marriage, and poor people sell sons and daughters."

Xiurong was arrested and detained in January for selling her children but was released because of her disability. She said she was blinded in an accident when she was five.

China also has a one-child policy, so Xiurong has been compelled to hide her pregnancies to prevent arrests.

Speaking about her husband, "As a normal person, he can't earn any money. On the contrary, I, a blinded person, had to support the whole family."

How people, particularly children are treated in China is a profound issue. China performs forced abortions on children and steeply fines parents who have more than one child. This compels people to live in fear, and to take drastic measures if they're poor, which can include infanticide and selling children. Despite Xiurong's claims, many children end up in the hands of human traffickers.

Recently, another baby in China made headlines after its mother flushed him down a toilet. She claimed the event was accidental. That child was retrieved by its grandparents from authorities and no charges have been filed against the mother.

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