A Dutch television show in which a terminally ill woman supposedly would donate her kidney to one of three contestants was revealed as a hoax.
At the last moment on Friday, presenter Patrick Lodiers of the Big Donor Show said the woman known as "Lisa" was an actress and was not actually dying of a brain tumor as claimed.
The entire exercise was intended to pressure the government into reforming its organ donation laws and raise public awareness of the need for organs, he said.
PHOTO: AFP
The three prospective recipients were real patients in need of transplants and had been in on the hoax, the show said.
The program had been widely criticized for being tasteless and unethical.
But Lodiers said it was "reality that was shocking" because around 200 people die annually in the Netherlands while waiting for a kidney and the average waiting time is more than four years -- more than in other European countries.
"I thought it was brilliant, really," said Caroline Klingers, a kidney patient who was watching the show at th. e Kidney Patients Organization headquarters in Bussum, Netherlands.
"I know these transplant doctors and I thought they'll never go and actually do it," she said. "But it's good for the publicity and there are no losers."
The Netherlands' doctors association had called on members not to participate in the program and questioned its authenticity.
"Given the large medical, psychological and legal uncertainties around this case, the [association] considers the chance extremely small that it will ever come to an organ transplant," it said.
The show was produced by Endemol, which created Big Brother in 1999, introducing the concept of reality TV.
Viewers were called on to vote for their favorite candidate by SMS text message during the show.
Earlier in the week, the Cabinet declined suggestions from lawmakers to ban the program, saying that would amount to censorship.
BNN had said "Lisa" had less than six months to live and would carry out the donation within a month of choosing a winner.
But doctors usually refuse to accept organ donations from terminally ill patients because the operation could hasten their death.
Additionally, under Dutch rules, donors must be friends, or preferably family, of the organ recipient.
Meeting on a television program wouldn't qualify.
But a spokeswoman for the Dutch doctor's association said that it was conceivable the transplant could have been carried out abroad.
"You can't rule that out," Saskia van der Ree said.
BNN spokeswoman Marieke Saly said earlier on Friday that all arrangements for the program were completed, but she declined to comment on where and when the donation would be carried out.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese