Baby smugglers sentenced to death

Many Chinese families are allowed only one child

A court in China has sentenced two people to death for selling 118 babies to smugglers, state media said.

Four accomplices received suspended death sentences, while dozens of others involved in the racket were imprisoned, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Hospital staff in Yulin city reportedly sold the babies to the gang, who sold them on to smugglers for marketing in China's more prosperous provinces.

One of the babies died after being given sleeping pills during transit.

'Adoption'

The court heard that doctors and nurses at the hospital sold 118 babies to gang members for as little as 200 yuan ($24).

The traffickers doped the babies and sold them to smugglers in far away provinces, where they could fetch up to 3,000 yuan.

One of those sentenced to death, Xie Deming, a farmer, sold 46 babies in China's eastern Anhui province and central Henan province, Xinhua reported.

Xie said she was trying to be kind-hearted and only wanted to make sure the babies were adopted, the agency said.

Xinhua said a doctor who sold the babies asked their parents to sign a document saying they were willing to give the children up and would not seek their return.

All but one of the babies were boys.

Male offspring are highly favoured over females in China, where a strict one-child family law has led families to seek a male heir.