A doctor in northern China has been given a suspended death sentence for abducting newborn babies and selling them to traffickers.

The former obstetrician Zhang Shuxia, 55, stole seven babies, mostly from Fuping county, by falsely telling their parents the newborns were sick or had died.

She sold them to traffickers for $3,700 for female babies and $8,600 for males, said the court.

Six of the babies were recovered safely by police and returned to their parents, but one baby was found dead in a ditch, dumped by a trafficker.

The court found that Zhang had persuaded a mother to give up a pair of newborn female twins last year on the grounds that one had died of disease, while the other supposedly had injured arms and legs.

Chinese parents are sometimes willing to give up disabled children because of the limits imposed by the country's one-child policy, as well as widespread social stigma about disability.

The court in Weinan city sentenced Zhang to death with a two-year reprieve, adding that her actions "had a negative impact on society".

Her sentence is likely to be commuted to life imprisonment.

According to state media, Zhang may have sold many more children.

Police have reportedly been told about 26 incidents allegedly involving the doctor as the main suspect.

Police arrested Zhang after a young couple reported that their baby had been abducted in July, reports said.

The couple told reporters that Zhang claimed their son had caught hepatitis B and syphilis from them. Doctors later told them they were free of both diseases.

The parents have since recovered the boy.

Sentence causes outrage on social media

Chinese internet users celebrated the verdict, while many called for a stiffer punishment.

"She should die, she is the shame of the medical profession," one user wrote on Sina Weibo, a social media service similar to Twitter.

Another wrote: "The death penalty should be carried out immediately."

China's strict population control policies mean that most couples are allowed to only have one child and tens of thousands of children are believed to be stolen each year.

Most are sold within the country to meet demand fuelled by a one-child limit and traditional preference for sons.

Some people accuse apathetic police of failing to investigate.

China does not publish figures on how many children are seized every year but said it rescued 24,000 in the first 10 months of 2013.

China's top legislature this month endorsed a resolution easing the one-child policy, allowing couples to have two offspring if either parent is an only child.

AFP