A Dutch TV station says it will go ahead with a programme in which a terminally ill woman selects one of three patients to receive her kidneys.

 

Political parties have called for The Big Donor Show to be scrapped, but broadcaster BNN says it will highlight the country's shortage of organ donors.

"It's a crazy idea," said Joop Atsma, of the ruling Christian Democrat Party.

"It can't be possible that, in the Netherlands, people vote about who's getting a kidney," he told the BBC.

The programme, from Big Brother creators Endemol, is due to be screened on Friday night.

 

'Totally unacceptable'

 

Specialists in kidney transplants have condemned the programme

 

The 37-year-old donor, identified only as Lisa, will make her choice based on the contestants' history, profile and conversation with their family and friends.

Viewers will also be able to send in their advice by text message during the 80-minute show.

The Dutch donor authority has condemned the show, as have kidney specialists in the UK.

"The scenario portrayed in this programme is ethically totally unacceptable," said Professor John Feehally, who has just ended his term as president of the UK's Renal Association.

"The show will not further understanding of transplants," he added. "Instead it will cause confusion and anxiety."

 

Professor Feehally also pointed out that, under normal circumstances, two people would benefit from a donor, each receiving one kidney.

"The set up of the programme bears no relationship to the way decisions are made about transplants in the real world," he said.

"Living donors can choose altruistically to give one of their kidneys - usually to a family member.

"If organs become available after someone dies, health professionals with access to detailed information about those waiting for a transplant make objective decisions about who should receive those particular kidneys."

 

'Shocking'

 

BNN chairman Laurens Drillich has defended the show

 

The former director of TV station BNN, Bart de Graaff, died from kidney failure aged 35 after spending years on a transplant waiting list.

"The chance for a kidney for the contestants is 33%," said the station's current chairman, Laurens Drillich. "This is much higher than that for people on a waiting list."

"We think that is disastrous, so we are acting in a shocking way to bring attention to this problem."

"For years and years we have had problems in the Netherlands with organ donations and especially kidney donations," agreed Alexander Pechtold of D-66, the Dutch social liberal party.

"You can have a discussion about if this is distasteful, but finally we have a public debate," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

TV critics in the UK have expressed horror at the programme, but said such a show would be unlikely in Britain.

"My first reaction, probably everyone's reaction, is that this is as dangerously near as we've got to a TV programme playing God," said Julia Raeside of the Guardian newspaper.

"People may live or die on the result of a game show. It's a step too far.

"I don't think this is anything to do with reality TV. It's just a crazy idea that would never play out over here."

The outcry comes at a difficult time for production company Endemol, who were censured by Ofcom last week for their handling of the Celebrity Big Brother racism row. The Australian version of Big Brother has also drawn criticism for not telling a contestant that her father had died.

So are the housemates likely to be REjected??:rolleyes:

I've watched the end of the show on Nederland 3, because I was a bit curious about this distasteful concept. Fortunately at the end of the show the moderator announced that the whole show was a fake! They only wanted to call attention to organ donor.

 

 

 

TV kidney competition was a hoax

 

The 'contestants' were all in genuine need of a kidney

 

A Dutch TV contest that purported to show a dying woman choose a patient to receive her kidneys was a hoax.

 

The "donor" in the show was in fact an actress - though the three people vying for an organ were real patients in need of a kidney transplant.

 

The three knew that The Big Donor Show, which aired on Friday, was not real. The producers say it was made to highlight the shortage of Dutch donors.

 

Before the hoax was revealed, the show had attracted widespread criticism.

 

"We are not giving away a kidney here, that is going too far even for us," presenter Patrick Lodiers said at the moment when the fake donor was apparently about to reveal her choice of patient.

 

The 37-year-old "donor", identified only as Lisa, was to make her choice based on the contestants' history and profile, and conversation with their family and friends.

 

Earlier, Lisa had said that it felt like playing God. "Think of it as playing Santa Claus," replied the presenter.

 

'No losers'

 

Viewers were invited to send in their opinions and votes by text message during the 80-minute show.

 

"We have only done this cry for help because we want to solve a problem that shouldn't be a problem," a producer told a news conference after the show.

 

Dutch Culture Minister Ronald Plasterk hailed the show as a "fantastic stunt".

 

Caroline Klingers, a kidney patient who was watching the programme at a treatment centre in the town of Bussum, also praised it.

 

"It's good for the publicity and there are no losers," she said.

 

Helen Illes, a British woman who had a kidney transplant four years ago, said she was repulsed by the show at first but hoped the publicity would help highlight the need for more donors.

 

"Although my initial thinking was that this was disgraceful, I thought if this is being done with actors, then I understand it," she said.

 

"But what kind of society do we live in where there has to be this kind of show to make people sit up and take notice about it?" she added.

 

BBC News website readers had mixed views.

 

Richard Taylor said it was an "excellent way to highlight the shortage of organs and the desperate plight of those who require them".

 

But Doug Nanaimo wrote: "That anyone believed that this was real shows how horrible, tasteless and puerile most television programming has become."

 

Earlier in the week Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende had criticised the programme, saying it could damage the reputation of the Netherlands.

 

There were calls from lawmakers to ban the show and Dutch embassies received complaints about it.

 

But Mr Lodiers said it was "reality that was shocking" because about 200 people die each year while waiting for a kidney in the Netherlands, and the average waiting time is more than four years.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6714063.stm

Good way to get public awareness of the storage.