ABOVE: Esther Clair (left), one of the kidney candidates, BNN Chief Executive Laurens Drillich, and Endemol Broadcast director Paul Romer (right) attend a news conference after the widely criticised "Big Donor Show" in Aalsmeer, the Netherlands, 1 June 2007. The reality television show in which "Lisa," a supposedly dying woman, had to decide one of three contestants to whom she would donate a kidney, was a hoax, the programme makers said on Friday. (Reuters photo by Michael Kooren)BELOW: Actress Leonie Gebbink who played "Lisa" during the Big Donor Show after a press conference in Aalsmeer, central Netherlands. (Associated Press photo)
Reuters
Saturday 2 June 2007
JUST KIDDING!
Well ... the 3 contestants who really need a new kidney weren't kidding
by Foo Yun Chee
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -- The Dutch prime minister said a reality television show about a "dying" woman donating her kidneys, which turned out to be a hoax, was not the most suitable way of highlighting the need for more organ donors.
The show sparked worldwide controversy ahead of transmission on Friday and Premier Jan Peter Balkenende had said it would harm the reputation of the Netherlands abroad.
Balkenende was pleased the program was nothing more than a publicity stunt, Dutch news agency ANP reported on Saturday.
"Some will find it great and creative, on the other side there will be people who find it coarse and misleading," he said.
In his opinion the show was not the most appropriate method for drawing attention to organ donorship, but he hoped it would make people really think about the issue.
Around 1,200,000 people watched, according to ANP, giving broadcaster BNN its seventh highest audience ever. About 12,000 people signed up as organ donors during the show.
"An hour later we were still sitting at home with our mouths open and our caps off to them. A great stunt. Historic television," television reviewer Wim de Jong wrote in daily De Volkskrant.
Identified only as "Lisa", the 37-year-old "dying" woman turned out to be a healthy actress.
But the three candidates were genuine patients in need of kidney transplants, the show's producers revealed in the last minutes of the "The Big Donorshow".
"Their life is bitter reality," the presenter said, after admitting the deception at the moment when Lisa was to have made her life-saving choice.
The Dutch media were largely positive about the show, co-produced by makers of "Big Brother" Endemol, praising its ingenuity and stressing that the publicity helped a good cause.
[Agence-Vleeptron Presse CORRECTION: Last post we said Dutch TV pioneered Reality TV with their original version of "Survivor." We meant "Big Brother." We don't watch enough Reality TV, hard to stay in the loop.]
Taxi driver Rob Goverts, 67, said he had suspected all along it was a publicity stunt.
"In a civilized country you just do not do things like this. It was unorthodox but for shaking people awake, it was good," he said. He signed up as an organ donor 15 years ago.
Others felt deceived. "This is sick, messing with people's minds -- and then you pat yourselves on the back over it," brickx blogged on broadcaster BNN's website.
After the show, Dutch Education Minister Ronald Plasterk hailed it as a "fantastic stunt." BNN had said all along the show aimed to draw attention to the shortage of organ donors.
The Netherlands has one of the lowest donor rates in Europe, according to data compiled by the country's Health Council.
About 40,000 patients are waiting for an organ transplant across the EU. The mortality rate while waiting for a heart, liver or lung transplant is between 15 and 30 percent.
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(Additional reporting by Alexandra Hudson)
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Reuters FACTBOX
Organ donation regulations
in some major countries
(Reuters) -- The European Union's health chief has proposed an EU-wide organ donor card and criticized a Dutch reality TV show in which a dying woman will choose a recipient for her kidneys.
Here are some key facts about laws governing organ donation in some major countries:
* SINGAPORE: The city state's organ donor policy assumes all citizens are willing donors, unless they have registered with the government that they wish to opt out.
* EUROPEAN UNION: Many European countries, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Greece, Norway, Switzerland, Spain and Sweden have laws similar to Singapore's "presumed consent" legislation. In most of these countries, family consent is also sought.
* Under the "informed consent" laws in Denmark, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, individuals must make a conscious decision to donate organs after death and indicate their willingness to do so.
[ENGLISH GRAMMAR LESSON: Making a conscious decision after death may prove difficult, and may be a factor in the low organ donation rate in some of these countries.]
* Spain has the highest recorded donor rate in the world at 35.1 donors per million population.
* Europe has a list of nearly 40,000 patients waiting for an organ.
* UNITED STATES: Organ donation in the United States is based on the principle of informed consent.
While federal law lays down the policies, each state has its own Uniform Anatomical Gift Act which provides for a donor card, often part of the state's driver's licenses, permitting the removal of organs after death. The cards must be signed by a person over 18 years of age and witnessed by two other adults.
[I put it on my driver's license. Take all my guts you need. Don't take my pancreas, it doesn't work very well. Though they need it badly, do not transplant my brain into Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan.]
* Most states have laws stating the consent of the potential donor is sufficient but enforcement is not uniform and families are still asked to consent.
* More than 96,000 people are on the organ transplant waiting list.
* U.S. and European laws ban the sale of human organs and most tissue for transplant is taken fresh from the bodies of the newly deceased. A smaller amount also comes from live donors, mostly people giving to save the life of a relative or friend.
* BRAZIL: passed a law in 1998 mandating presumed consent and making every citizen a potential donor after death but it triggered a public outcry. The Federal Attorney later conceded that families could prevent the removal of organs for transplant and presumed consent was abolished in 2000.
* JAPAN: Both the potential donor and the family must consent to establish "brain death" as well as organ transplantation. The donor card must be signed by the potential donor as well as two witnesses, including a close relative. The family has the right to withdraw consent to donate at any time.
Sources: Reuters; UK Parliament ; www.organdonor.gov ; Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation
© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved.
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