Reality Show To Give Away Kidney as Prize
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
SCHIPHOL, Netherlands — The Dutch government will allow the broadcast of a television show that offers three dialysis patients a chance to win a kidney.
A ban on the TV show from Endemol NV, which also produces “Big Brother,” would breach the right to freedom of speech, Education Minister Ronald Plasterk said at a parliamentary meeting yesterday at The Hague. Mr. Plasterk called the “competitive element” of the show “inappropriate and unethical.”
In the “Big Donor Show,” a 37-year-old terminally ill woman will select one patient out of three to receive one of her kidneys. Viewers can help her choose by sending text messages.
“The Dutch audience will be playing referee in what could be a matter of life and death,” Joop Atsma, a legislator for the Christian Democratic Alliance, said in the meeting.
Broadcaster BNN, which will air the show on June 1, aims to draw attention to the need for donors, it said in a statement dated May 25. Endemol’s Dutch unit will produce the show.
The woman will give away one kidney before her death and will donate all her organs after she passes away, BNN chairman Laurens Drillich said over the phone.
Endemol is based in Hilversum, Netherlands. Prime Minister Balkenende’s Christian Democratic Alliance is the biggest party in Parliament.
