Who Want's a Kidney?

[€uroMeinke]

Read this (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6699847.stm)and thought here's a real reality show - Dutch program in which people in need of a kidney transplant compete for one donor kidney. Forget a million dollars, life and death are far better stakes

[Alex]

On the first hand, I am thoroughly appalled. And I can't imagine what type of person would agree to be that donor.

On the second hand, however, I get each of the other two contestants comes out of it with people offering their kidneys. So, if in the end it means that three people get a kidney instead of one is that a net good?

Add in the huge publicity this will create for the need for organ donation and also (hopefully) some education on the risks, rewards, and realities of both live and dead organ donation and maybe it is a clear societal positive while the person who agreed to be the donor for the show and the producers remain utter ****s.

[Stan4dSteph]

Although this may show the need for more organ donation, I can imagine that there are many more effective ways to go about it.

[Alex]

Maybe, and certainly methods less fraught with moral shallowness.

But on the other hand a show about making fun of bad singers and sometimes finding a decent one raised $70 million in a week.

Television is a medium with power that dwarfs other channels and you aren't going to get 10 weeks of "let's take a serious look at the organ donation crisis" aired, let alone watched.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Shows that truly exploit people - blech.

I can rationalize Survivor because it's an experience some people crave.

[Stan4dSteph]

Maybe, and certainly methods less fraught with moral shallowness.

But on the other hand a show about making fun of bad singers and sometimes finding a decent one raised $70 million in a week.

Television is a medium with power that dwarfs other channels and you aren't going to get 10 weeks of "let's take a serious look at the organ donation crisis" aired, let alone watched.Excellent point. It will be interesting to see how the show is received once it begins to air.

[cirquelover]

The woman donating the kidney has terminal brain cancer and she knows after she dies she will have no choice who it goes to. It says she wanted to know who was getting the one and choose who it would be, while raising awareness for the need for organ donation. She says the other one will go to whoever is at the top of the list after her death.
I thought it interesting that the contract states she can back out at any time because legally they couldn't make a contract that states otherwise.

At first I was appalled then I just thought it strange and kind of sad.

[€uroMeinke]

Shows that truly exploit people - blech.

I can rationalize Survivor because it's an experience some people crave.

I suppose some people really crave a kidney as well...

[Tref]

That whole donation process is baffling to me. I donated one of my kidneys to a close friend. When I saw him a few weeks later he said he had never used it. When I asked for it back he became indignant and claimed he didn't know where it was. I think he gave it to somebody else. I understand that he had been caught re-gifting a set of crystal flutes before, so, who knows.

[Jughead P. Jones]

Just when you thought reality television had exhausted every avenue...

But, then again, I suppose European television has different guidelines as what they deem appropriate to air.

The big question is...do you think a show idea like that could survive in North America?

[Gn2Dlnd]

FLASH! TV KIDNEY COMPETITION WAS A HOAX! (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6714063.stm)

The "donor" in the show was in fact an actress - though the three people vying for an organ were real patients in need of a kidney transplant.

The three knew that The Big Donor Show, which aired on Friday, was not real. The producers say it was made to highlight the shortage of Dutch donors.

Crazy Dutch people.

[Alex]

I guess my thoughts weren't far off. (Not the hoax part, but the intended secondary impacts of such a show.)