Dutch TV's Win-a-Kidney Reality Show

Dutch TV's new win-a-kidney reality competition sparking outrage

By Christopher Rocchio, 05/29/2007

A Dutch reality television special that has a woman selecting a new kidney from three potential donors has reportedly caught the attention of both critics of the show's format and proponents of the message it's attempting to relay to viewers.

The Big Donor Show, a reality show that will air as a single episode on Dutch broadcaster BNN this upcoming Friday, will follow a 37-year-old woman in need of a new kidney who picks one from three potential donors based on their history, profile and conversations with their families and friends, Reuters reported Tuesday. In addition, viewers will reportedly be able to text message the woman during the live show to help her determine the best donor.

"It's a crazy idea," Joop Atsma, of Dutch's ruling Christian Democrat Party, told BBC News on Tuesday. "It can't be possible that, in the Netherlands, people vote about who's getting a kidney."

However some see The Big Donor Show -- which is produced by Endemol, the recently-sold global reality TV and game show giant behind reality shows like Big Brother, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Fear Factor -- as a way to raise awareness about the shortage of viable kidney donors in the Netherlands.

"For years and years we have had problems in the Netherlands with organ donations and especially kidney donations," Alexander Pechtold, a member of the Dutch social liberal party, recently told BBC Radio 4's Today program. "You can have a discussion about if this is distasteful, but finally we have a public debate."

While it could be said The Big Donor Show will raise social awareness about an important medical issue, other Dutch government officials simply think a reality television show is not the correct format to do so.

"The intention of the program to get more attention for organ donation may be applaudable," Dutch Education and Culture Minister Ronald Plasterk told Reuters. "However based on the information I now have, the program appears to me to be inappropriate and unethical because it is a competition,."

Medical professionals across Europe have also bashed The Big Donor Show's concept.

"It seems in rather bad taste to do a reality TV show on something like this, which is after all a serious issue," European Health Commission spokesman Philip Tod told Reuters.

As distasteful as The Big Donor Show's concept may sound, the lack of organ donors in Europe is a serious problem, as Reuters reported the Health Commission is expected to focus on the importance of Europeans serving as organ donors during a discussion this week. European Union Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou told Reuters the shortage of donated organs contributes to 10 deaths a day within the 27-nation block, which is why the Commission is planning to address the problem, no doubt in a more sensitive way than The Big Donor Show.

But the show's format also hits close to home to BNN, as the station's former director died from kidney failure at the age of 35 after spending years on a transplant waiting list.

"The chance for a kidney for the contestants is 33%," BNN's current chairman Laurens Drillich told BBC News. "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."

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