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Kidney donation reality show revealed as a hoax
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 2, 2007
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - A television show in which a woman would donate a kidney to a contestant was revealed as a hoax Friday, with presenters saying they were trying to pressure the government into reforming organ donation laws. Shortly before the controversial program was to air, Patrick Lodiers of the Big Donor Show said the woman was not actually dying of a brain tumor as claimed and the entire exercise was intended to add pressure on the government and to raise public awareness of the need for organs. The three prospective recipients were real patients in need of transplants and had been in on the hoax, the show said. The program concept had received widespread criticism for being tasteless and unethical. But Lodiers said that it was "reality that was shocking" because about 200 people die annually in the Netherlands while waiting for a kidney, and the average waiting time is more than four years. Under Dutch rules, donors must be friends, or preferably, family of the recipient. Meeting on a TV show wouldn't qualify. "I thought it was brilliant, really, " said kidney patient Caroline Klingers.
[Last modified June 2, 2007, 02:18:04]
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