Baby for Sale on Ebay

It is still unclear whether this was meant as a joke or the real thing, but after a German couple put a listing for their seven-month old baby on Ebay at the starting price of one euro, the German police was prompted into investigating the case.

Part of the Ebay advertisement, which was taken out after two and a half hours, read as follows: "Baby - collection only. Offer my nearly new baby for sale because it cries too much". The mother claimed afterwards that is was a joke, and no bids were made for the "item" in question. Internet browsers reported the offending ad to Ebay's management who then removed it from their website and officers of the German police are currently investigating the case that may be related to human trafficking.

The baby has been reported to be healthy but has been removed from his home and placed into care and the 23 year-old mother is to undergo psychiatric evaluation.

Whether it was a joke or a bad case of the baby blues, this is apparently not the first time a human being has been put on sale on Ebay, even though a quick look through Ebay's prohibited and restricted items clearly inform visitors that the listing of human parts and remains, including humain beings, is not authorised on the website. Ebay uses filters to prevent unauthorised items to be placed for auctions but it seems that the forbidden items somehow manage to get through the filters sometimes, as shown by this particular case of a baby advertised on Ebay, as well as the following examples:

In October 2005, a listing was placed on Eachnet, the Chinese version of Ebay, for babies who would have been available to buyers within 100 days of their birth; boys would have cost from 28000 yuan ($3450) whereas a girl would have set a buyer back 13000 yuan ($1603). In December 2004, a listing was placed on Ebay by a disgruntled person having been served with an eviction notice, advertising a judge for sale and including a photograph of the judge, which was meant as a prank and a way of expressing the Ebay user's feelings of being victim of an injustice. On June 22 of this year, you can start bidding for the life of a recently divorced English man living in Australia, who has decided to put his whole life up for sale, including his home, job, all of his material possessions and even his friends.