A Tokyo doctor was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison for purchasing an illegally harvested kidney, and his wife was jailed for 30 months over her involvement.
The Tokyo District Court found Toshinobu Horiuchi, 56, and his 48-year-old wife, Noriko, guilty of purchasing the kidney in violation of the organ transplant law.
The court said Horiuchi, facing kidney failure, in July 2010 paid ¥8 million to an intermediary in exchange for a kidney from a 21-year-old unemployed ma, whom the doctor technically adopted to ensure the transplant met the legal criteria of being among relatives.