Dutch Kidney Reality TV Show a Hoax

Via aljazeera.net -

A Dutch reality television show in which a supposedly dying woman had to decide one of three contestants to whom she would donate a kidney was a hoax, the programme makers have said.

The Big Donor Show, which the programme makers had said was intended to focus on the shortage of donor organs, had sparked controversy worldwide.

Identified only as "Lisa", the 37-year-old woman who had been said to have a brain tumour was to base her selection on the person's history and conversations with the candidates' families and friends.

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

"The entire exercise was intended to pressure the government into reforming its organ donation laws and raise public awareness of the need for organs," Patrick Lodiers, the show's presenter, said.

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 - more than in other European countries.