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The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/Tokyono on 2024-05-28 11:04:03+00:00.
Note: I used google translate to translate all the Dutch sources in this post. Apologies for any translation errors, but I have 0 talent for languages.
I was going to write about the controversies of The Great British Bake Off, but then I came across this mess. Enjoy!
Just a quick note: there are two different types of organ donation law; opt-in and opt-out. In 2007, the Netherlands had an opt-in system. It was seen as very inefficient as it did not meet the needs of patients and there was a long waiting list. Most countries in Europe have an “opt out” system vs the USA which has an “opt-in” one.
The Doctor is in: BNN. Bart de Graaf. And The Great Donor Show.
Reality tv is a diverse genre. There are reality shows about dating, marriage, survival, cake baking, carpentry, …and now, organ donation.
In 2007, BNN, a Dutch broadcaster known for its controversial programming, announced that they would be airing a show called “The Great Donor Show”. It was created by Endemol, a Dutch production company that had created a lot of popular reality tv shows, including Big Brother.
The premise of the show:
It focuses on Lisa, a 37-year-old woman dying of a brain tumour. She must decide which of three patients selected by the producers, aged between 18 and 40, should receive her kidney. Viewers can offer their opinions by SMS text message.
In the Netherlands, organ transplants are subject to strict laws, which prohibit donors from choosing who will receive their organs after their death.
However, an exemption is made in the case of kidney transplants, which can be carried out while the donor is still alive, allowing the donor to choose the beneficiary if there is some link between the two people.
The three contestants were Vincent Moolenaar, Charlotte Trieschnigg, and Esther-Clair Sasabone.
BNN claimed that they produced the show in honour of their founder, Bart de Graaf, who died after waiting seven years for a kidney donation. The show was screened on the fifth anniversary of his death. Proceeds from all the text messages would go to the Dutch Kidney Foundation.
Every-body calm down: The Backlash
The shows announcement was quickly met with both international and national outrage, from politicians, television critics, and medical professionals. Dutch embassies were flooded with complaints . Even the Dutch prime minister at the time, Jan Peter Balkenende, criticised the show, saying it would damage the reputation of the Netherlands. Some Dutch politicians even called for the program to be banned:
CDA MP Joop Atsma wants to see if BNN’s Big Donor Show can be banned.
Atsma hopes that BNN will come to repentance. "The fence is with this program of the dam. A careful medical assessment is thus passed. What are people in the program judged? - On their color? - In their gender? To their sexual orientation?”
Atsma calls Minister Ab Klink (CDA) of Health and Minister of Culture Ronald Plasterk (PvdA) Tuesday to the Question Time in the Chamber. “I want to know if we can ban the program. There is a good chance that it will go against the law. I want to explain if there is a difference in selling an organ to the highest bidder.”
Ronald Plasterk weighed in on the situation::
"The intention of the programme to get more attention for organ donation may be applaudable," said Dutch Education and Culture Minister Ronald Plasterk.
"However based on the information I now have, the programme appears to me to be inappropriate and unethical because it is a competition," said Plasterk, who is a molecular biologist and former chief of the Dutch Cancer Institute.
In the end, the government announced that they wouldn’t ban the program, because there was no basis under the law for them to do so.
BNN’s then chairman, Laurens Drillich, defended the show and explained why they were airing it:
"The chance for a kidney for the contestants is 33%,"…"This is much higher than that for people on a waiting list."
"We think that is disastrous, so we are acting in a shocking way to bring attention to this problem."
He later added that in the five years since Bart De Graaf had died, the situation had gotten much, much, worse.
BNN invited Ab Klink to come onto the show and discuss what the government had done to solve the crisis. But he turned them down. In a poll conducted before the show aired, it was found that 61% of the Dutch population disapproved of the show. Interestingly enough, younger people approved of it much more than older people (44% of under 25s said they would watch it vs 13% of over 65s).
The Dutch Kidney Foundation welcomed the attention that the show had brought to the organ donor issue in the Netherlands, but said that “"their way of doing it is not ours, and it will bring no practical solution". However, the negative attention the show received, made them reach out and ask BNN to stop using their logo in the title of the show. BNN had not asked them for permission and had gone ahead and used their 2007 logo to replace the “o” in the word “show”.
The show aired on the first of June 2007. At the beginning of the broadcast, the presenter, Patrick Lodiers, highlighted the dramatic criticism the show had received, and at the end, he announced that the whole thing was a hoax.
If the vote had been real, then Charlotte would’ve won with 38% of the vote:
In the end, it was the most vulnerable of the three who made the biggest impression.
Twenty-nine-year-old Charlotte talked about the fact that she cannot even drink more than a pint of liquid per day, because that is all her body can handle.
Some 38% of those text messages were votes for Charlotte. However, just as "Lisa" started to announce who she was going to give her kidney to, the presenter intervened.
(Note: it is very difficult to find surviving clips of the program. It is considered lost media. I was able to find this clip on YouTube, as well as the ones linked above, but that’s it.)
It takes some guts: Donation and deception.
It was revealed that Lisa was an actress, but that the three contestants were all real patients in need of a kidney donation. They knew what was going on and agreed to appear on the program to highlight the organ donation issue in the Netherlands.
The reveal had a mixed reception. Ronald Plasterk thought the show was a “fantastic stunt” and that it had inspired him to become an organ donor. He was very happy that it wasn’t real. The then Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, was also relieved. Ab Klink still though the show was “inappropriate”, but he did find it positive that it had drawn attention to the issue of organ donations. Joop Atsma refused to change his stance, he continued to find ...
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