6/2/2007 - TV Kidney Show a Hoax

Well, all is well that ends well. The TV show last night was a hoax. Interestingly, to Dutch viewers, and the Dutch media gathered in the studio this became pretty clear right away. I've heard that the first thing they did on the show, was to dismiss 25 kidney patients, calling them inept. For the Dutch media this was an immediate clue that the show was in fact a hoax. Foreign journalists who were interviewed after the show told that they were surprised to learn about the hoax at the end of the show. Apparently, they thought the Dutch were certainly mad enough to pull stunts like this. Well, most of the Dutch believed that before the show. Oh well.

What was real and what wasn't? Well, the three kidney patients were real, but the woman donating her kidney was a perfectly healthy actress. The intention of the makers was to confront our politicians with the fact that they have no program whatsoever to ensure that more donor organ become available. They sure did that. In the week leading up to the show, some of them were outraged. After the show however, most of them apologized, and some went as far as to say, that this way a fantastic way to draw attention to this great cause. The issue of donors is up for debate in the commons on Tuesday, and the show will certainly have added some fuel.

Why such attention for this subject? Well, the broadcaster, BNN, was founded nine years ago by a kidney patient, Bart de Graaff. He died five years ago because his body rejected his donor kidney.  

6/2/2007 - wow

And I believed it too. I also believed it was ethically wrong, but hey, why should that stop anybody :) If I'm dead, they can take what they want from my body and if it saves someones kid or dad, etc. or makes someone's life better because they feel good, can see again, or don't have to be hooked up to a machine for three hours several times a week, that would be beautiful. Quite a story though!