Woman donates kidney in reality TV show of Big Brot'r makers

Dutch woman to donate kidney in reality TV show

The Independent
29 May 2007

A terminally-ill Dutch woman will select a recipient for one of her kidneys in the latest production from Endemol, makers of Big Brother.

The Big Donor Show will be shown in the Netherlands on Friday despite calls from the Dutch Government for it to be scrapped, according to Newspaper De Telegraaf.

Broadcaster BNN said the programme would go ahead in which a 37-year-old, named only as Lisa, would choose a recipient from one of three people with kidney problems.

BNN said the programme was designed to highlight the problems facing people needing organ transplants and was also a tribute to BNN founder Bart de Graaff, who died of kidney failure five years ago, despite several transplants.

Political critics in the Netherlands have called the show "wretched" and unethical, news reports said.