Mortified: Relatives of the youngster talk to a nurse. His parents realised he was missing when they tried to call hm inside the house but received no response

'Extraordinarily vicious': The child's eyes were found nearby but the corneas were missing, reports said, implying that an organ trafficker was behind the harrowing attack

After a frantic search with relatives, they found him screaming in a field near their home in Fenxi, north China. The kidnapper had reportedly told Binbin: ‘Don’t cry and I won’t gouge out your eyes.’

WHY DID THEY TAKE THE CORNEAS?

The organ trafficker may have been motivated by money.

But they could also have been driven to such a horrific crime by the hope of saving someone's sight - or even their own. Problems with the cornea - the clear front part of the eye - can cause the eye to mist up and, if left untreated, lead to blindness. But the most serious conditions such as Fuchs' dystrophy, a degenerative condition that affects older people, can be cured with a transplant, above (file picture). Until recent years, the only operation was a full cornea transplant, an operation that involved 24 stitches in each eye and an 18-month recovery period. But advances in technology have meant surgeons can now carry out a partial replacement under local anaesthetic with a recovery time of just four weeks.

China does not have a donor culture, but about 300,000 patients need transplants each year. Only about 10,000 receive organs, mainly taken from death-row prisoners.



Though the sale and transplant of organs for money is prohibited, lax laws and widespread corruption have fuelled a booming industry.

China is also a leading destination for ‘transplant tourists’ who travel there to obtain organs.

Last night international doctors appalled by Binbin’s suffering called on leading medical journals to ban publication of Chinese research papers on organ transplants, to shame the country into tackling the problem.

Professor Arthur Caplan, head of medical ethics at New York University and spokesman for Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting, said: ‘As unimaginable and untrue as this boy’s torment sounds, it shocks but does not surprise.

‘Whereas hearts, livers and kidneys must be sourced from donors who match the same blood and body type of recipient patients, in-demand corneas for corrective eyesight operations can be taken from any age and body type.

‘Anyone who knows where the corneas are located in the eye can extract them, and I fear for the unsterile conditions and the barbaric methods used, and that infection may add to the boy’s suffering.

‘He will suffer unthinkable physical and psychological pain.’

Professor Caplan urged international governments to ‘stand up to China’ and take action to make it clean up its transplant industry.

‘Transplant tourists who travel to China with the right amount of money can order the organ needed,’ he said. ‘A prisoner is found to match the recipient and is taken out and shot.’