May 29, 2007
EU condemns organ donor tv show
Dutch News reports that The European Commission has condemned Dutch public-service broadcasting network BNN reality show scheduled to air on June 1st - whereby a 37-year-old terminal patient with a brain tumor, will chose, live, on TV, which of three contestants in need of a kidney transplant, will get her kidney once she dies.
The program has already been criticised by the cabinet and MPs. However, ministers Ronald Plasterk (media) and Ab Klink (health) will not ban the show. Plasterk says the media law does not allow him to act before the program is shown.
Klink's spokesperson has said however that the star of the Donor Show is not free to decide who will receive her organ, reprots Expatica News. "Only donors who donate a kidney while living are allowed to designate the recipient. In the case of posthumous donation the kidney will go to whomever has been waiting the longest."
BNN says the programis a serious attempt to highlight the scarcity of donor organs and to honour the memory of the broadcaster’s founder, Bart de Graaff, who died five years ago at the age of 35. De Graaff suffered from kidney disease all his life, which stunted his growth and eventually killed him, despite a kidney transplant in 1997."
Previously: - Dutch TV show has viewers voting on who should get donor organ
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