“A Dutch reality television show in which a terminally ill woman is to select one of three contestants to receive her kidneys when she dies is to air this week despite criticism that it pushes the boundaries of the format too far. “The government has called for De Grote Donorshow (The Big Donor show) to be dropped because it is “unethical” and “wretched” but the broadcaster BNN said it would go ahead to highlight the difficulties of searching for kidney donors.
“In the show, due to be broadcast on Friday, a woman identified only as Lisa, 37, will select a recipient based on their history, profile and conversations with their families and friends. Throughout the 80-minute show, viewers will be invited to send Lisa text messages to advise her….” [Rest of article]
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Then again, maybe if it heightens awareness of the need for organ donorship this is not such a bad thing. Shame on you if you don’t have a donor card in your wallet!
The Freakonomics Blog has more here, with links to other articles they’ve had on the issue.
[Update: By now, all of you have probably learned that this story was a hoax. I feel so used! 
Actually, I had waited a day to see if there was any truth to it, but when I saw it in the newspaper, well golly–I figured that now it just had to be true! Technically, it was a semi-hoax in that there really was a program promoted in the Netherlands with this premise that turned out, just before airing, to have been this hoax to create awareness for the organ donation problem]
