Organ Playing For Life or Death

[Farin]

[big]Contestants to Compete for Donated Kidney in Dutch TV Show[/big]

[smaller]© SPIEGEL ONLINE Link[/smaller]

A Dutch television company is to broadcast a unique game show where three chronically ill contestants will compete for a kidney donation. German commentators agree that the show is scandalous -- but argue that the real organ donation situation in the Netherlands is even more shocking.

From the people who brought you "Big Brother" -- the show where you can win a kidney.

In "The Big Donor Show," which is to be aired Friday in the Netherlands on the private television station BNN, three seriously ill patients who are waiting for kidney transplants will compete for a donated organ from a terminally ill 37-year-old woman identified only as "Lisa."

The show, of course, has the interactive elements common to reality TV shows. Lisa will interview the three contestants, and viewers will then be able to vote by mobile phone text message for the person who they feel best deserves the life-saving transplant.

Lisa herself will make the final decision about who will get one of her kidneys -- which will be transplanted while she is still alive -- based on the contestants' history, profile and conversations with their families and friends. However some observers have raised the question of whether the kidney will even be suitable for transplantation, seeing as Lisa is suffering from an inoperable brain tumor. Normally donated organs come from healthy individuals.

Unsurprisingly, the show has sparked controversy in the Netherlands and beyond. European Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said on Wednesday that he was "shocked" by the show. "This is not the way I would have chosen to create awareness and raise publicity when it comes to such a sensitive and emotional issue," he said.

Politicians and health experts across Europe have criticized the show. "It is totally unacceptable to use people's misfortune and illness in this way and to make people's suffering into entertainment," commented Sweden's Health Minister Goran Hagglund, while the president of the German Medical Association (BÄK), Jörg-Dietrich Hoppe, called it a "macabre game centering on human need."

There is a shortage of organ donors for kidney transplants in Europe.

Executives at the television station have defended their decision to air "The Big Donor Show" by saying that their aim is to publicize the shocking lack of donor organs in the Netherlands. "With this kind of tasteless -- we know it's tasteless -- television show in which we're going to do this, we're trying to get a lot of attention for organ donorship," said BNN chairman Laurens Drillich. The station says the show is a tribute to its founder, Bart de Graaff, who died of kidney failure five years ago at the age of 35. The show is produced by the company Endemol, which is famous for inventing the reality show "Big Brother."

[Tenacious_Peaches]

That is absolutely reprehensible. I am an admitted reality TV whore, but even I have limits. I like the shows where stupid people make fools of themselves for no reason. I don't like shows such as "Extreme Home Makeover" where people who are in genuine need have to expose the tragedy of their lives to the world to get some free s**t. The evil slimeballs involved get lauded as saints because they are using their money and power to help those less fortunate. I don't buy it for one second. True charity comes from the heart, not through Nielsen ratings. It's disgusting to use another person's misfortunes to turn a buck, even though on the surface it appears to help others.

[/out of nowhere rant]

[RonJonSurfer]

Although you exploit Mr. T to further advance your SF career. (Ron ducks to avoid flying shoe coming from the direction of Peaches...hey is that shoe new?)

[Tenacious_Peaches]

Don't make me come up to Jersey to whip you with my brand new shoe, Ron. }

[The Seeker]

You too fell for that shoesgod person?

As for that show... It's incredibly tasteless. I agree with Peaches... making money by exploiting other people's misfortunes is disgusting. On the other hand--it says a lot about the organ donor situation if people are willing to go those lengths to get a kidney.

[RonJonSurfer]

Kidney Transplant TV Show Is a Hoax

By TOBY STERLING

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - A television show in which a woman would donate a kidney to a contestants was revealed as a hoax Friday, with presenters saying they were trying to pressure the government into reforming organ donation laws.

Shortly before the controversial program was to air, Patrick Lodiers of the "Big Donor Show" said the woman was not actually dying of a brain tumor and the entire exercise was intended to put pressure on the government and raise awareness of the need for organs.

The three prospective recipients were real patients in need of transplants and had been in on the hoax, the show said.

The program concept had received widespread criticism for being tasteless and unethical.

But Lodiers said that it was "reality that was shocking" because around 200 people die annually in the Netherlands while waiting for a kidney, and the average waiting time is more than four years. Under Dutch rules, donors must be friends, or preferably, family of the recipient. Meeting on a TV show wouldn't qualify.

"I thought it was brilliant, really," said Caroline Klingers, a kidney patient who was watching the show at a kidney treatment center in Bussum, Netherlands.

"I know these transplant doctors, and I thought they'll never go and actually do it. But it's good for the publicity and there are no losers."

During the show, 25 kidney patients were vetted by "Lisa," and most were quickly dismissed for being too old, too young, smokers, ex-smokers or unemployed. Contestants gave moving pleas for why they should receive the organ.

"It really hurt watching that," said Tim Duyst, whose wife is awaiting a transplant and cannot work. "You're dismissed in a wave of the hand."

Viewers were called on to express an opinion or vote for their favorite candidate by SMS text message for 47 cents.

The show was produced by Endemol, which created "Big Brother" in 1999.

The Royal Netherlands Medical Association, known by its Dutch acronym KNM, had urged its members not to participate and questioned whether the program might just be a publicity stunt.

"Given the large medical, psychological, and legal uncertainties around this case, the KNMG considers the chance extremely small that it will ever come to an organ transplant," it said.

All seven of the country's transplant centers had said they not cooperating with the program, KNMG spokeswoman Saskia van der Ree.

Earlier in the week, the Cabinet declined suggestions from lawmakers to ban the program, saying that would amount to censorship.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[Rayzor]

Brilliant hoax!! Gets everyone talking!! to those who thought of it.

[Farin]

yes, it was all over the news today...

thanks for posting Ron