The Big Donor Show

[Scabbie]

This friday a very controversial TV show will air in the Netherlands: The Big Donor Show. A terminally ill woman will decide who out of three patients will get her kidney. The viewers can SMS her with advise. Christian Democrat Member of Parliament called on the nation's ministers of health care and culture to stop the show. In the Netherlands, organ transplants are bound to strict rules. People are not allowed to choose who their organs will go to after they die. But with kidney transplants - which can be carried out while the donor is still alive - they are allowed to choose. The show will be aired on BNN. They made TV programs in the past that were shocking and controversial, but only last year they made a docu-show about five young cancer patients. That was made very well and with lots of respect. The host of that show will host The Big Donor Show too. I think they'll handle this with great care. BNN's founder, Bart de Graaff, died five years ago waiting for a kidney. If this is what it takes to make more donors in the Netherlands, I'm fine with it. What do you think about this?

[blackcauldron85]

Talk about reality TV! I think that if it brings more awareness to donating kidneys, then that's cool...but, what happens to the other 2 people? Will they be guaranteed to have kidney surgery? If not, then the whole thing is cruel.

[Scabbie]

It's not very clear what will happen to the other two. I'll let you know after it aired.

[PixarFan2006]

That's it!

I have had it with reality shows!!!

This must stop NOW!

[Anne]

I think this is going way too far...

I'm a 4th year medical student and we talked about that in my discussion group this morning with doctors and other students. This show is probably one of the biggest ethical problems we've seen this year.

When we need to do a kidney transplant and that the donor is alive we need to do a lot of tests, including a couple of psychological interviews to determine the motivation behind the gesture of the patient. I wonder what is the motivation of this woman who wants to choose the receiver... We usually allow donation of kidneys between family members easily. When it comes to strangers, we need to do a LOT of tests before agreeing to the transplant.

Anyway... I could talk about this subject for hours!! lol But I definitely don't think this is something that should air on TV. The experience could be extremely hard to live for the potential receivers... it will be amazing for the person who will receive the kidney but the others will have been through a hard time and still be ill. That's horrible (even if they eventually get a kidney transplant).

[Prudence]

As someone with less-than-healthy kidneys, I must say -
That's simply cruel!

[UmbrellaFish]

All I can say is, What's wrong with people these days!

[Isidour]

This kind of shows are the ones that really prove how far the morbosity of audiences has reached alarming levels

Is not just the deal of "oh my, who will have my kidney,maybe the one who offers more" and that but also the pain of the pacients and their respective families than won't have the transplant. But then again...it shows that people will do anything for money

Or maybe is just a way to impulse people to become donator by using the pain of the people involved in this show...how hard is now a heart to recur to this practices?

who knows the real intentions...for now that show will already have tons of free publicity and morbid spectators

[Scabbie]

According to RTL News, journalists from 40 countries will be present at the show tonight. Also, the contestants are part of it because they want more awareness for this subject. I think we should wait for the show to be broadcasted before we judge. I think it won't be as bad as most of people think. BNN is a public broadcaster and they are known for other medical programs that were handled very well. Especially "Over Mijn Lijk". It was a program about five young cancer patients. "Over Mijn Lijk" means "Over my dead body" but in Dutch it could also mean "About my dead body". The host of that show ill host the show tonight too. Let's just wait and see.

[Scabbie]

The woman who was going to give her kidney away turned out to be an actress. The three contestants all knew about this. This was just to gain awareness. I think this was a great way of doing this.

[Dottie]

So it was just a show to promote organ donation? Clever way of sparking the discussion and raising awareness of the topic!

[Scabbie]

Yeah, it was really clever. The three candidates were real kidney-patients, so the pain of this decease was very real. I'm curious how all the journalists will react (there were journalists from 40 countries in the studio ).

[Lazario]

Hmm, The Netherlands... I have no idea what things are like in The Netherlands, but I can't say this sounds like a spiffing concept. You could prepare those 3 contestants all you wanted to, but when 2 of them are told- "no, you can't have this/these kidney(s)," they are going to be devastated!

[Dottie]

I bet the journalists feel let down now. They wanted to have a big story and now it was fake.
Serves them right. Journalists need something like that from time to time to tell them they shouldn't make a fuss about everything.

[blackcauldron85]

Here's an article from Yahoo! News that talks about "The Big Donor Show":
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070602/ap_ ... 8MiLPMWM0F