"Big Donor Show" a Big Hoax
by Laurence Wooster | June 05, 2007
The Big Donor Show put a
kidney shortage in the spotlight
kidney shortage in the spotlight
It has been called tasteless and wrong. Disgusting. Unethical, perhaps illegal. Now add an unlikely adjective to the list: great.
Turns out that the "Big Donor Show," in which a woman with brain cancer was to donate a kidney to one of three patients in need, was an elaborate hoax. BNN, the TV station that broadcast the show, along with production company Endemol (of Big Brother fame) and the Dutch Kidney Foundation, designed the stunt to draw attention to Europe's severe shortage of donated kidneys. Only in Iran, where a kidney market operates under government regulation, has a deficit of kidneys been eliminated.
Learning that "Lisa's" brain was healthy, an irate public on both sides of the pond did a double-take. Lawmakers and commentators started backpedaling, withdrawing some of their earlier criticisms to praise the show. Dutch Minister of Education Ronald Plasterk called it a "fantastic idea" and a "great stunt." Viewers, who had been encouraged to help Lisa pick the kidney recipient via text message, responded well to BNN's point: thousands have requested organ donor forms since the show aired.
In 2002, BNN founder Bart de Graaf died of kidney failure, despite several transplants.
Turns out that the "Big Donor Show," in which a woman with brain cancer was to donate a kidney to one of three patients in need, was an elaborate hoax. BNN, the TV station that broadcast the show, along with production company Endemol (of Big Brother fame) and the Dutch Kidney Foundation, designed the stunt to draw attention to Europe's severe shortage of donated kidneys. Only in Iran, where a kidney market operates under government regulation, has a deficit of kidneys been eliminated.
Learning that "Lisa's" brain was healthy, an irate public on both sides of the pond did a double-take. Lawmakers and commentators started backpedaling, withdrawing some of their earlier criticisms to praise the show. Dutch Minister of Education Ronald Plasterk called it a "fantastic idea" and a "great stunt." Viewers, who had been encouraged to help Lisa pick the kidney recipient via text message, responded well to BNN's point: thousands have requested organ donor forms since the show aired.
In 2002, BNN founder Bart de Graaf died of kidney failure, despite several transplants.
