Public Address | Cafe | Island Life: Now roll over and beg

David Slack

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 15:12:17 +1200

It was a hoax.

Could change the title of this post to Now roll over and blog

A Dutch reality television show in which a supposedly dying woman had to decide one of three contestants to whom she would donate a kidney was a hoax, the programme makers said.
Identified…

Joe Wylie

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 12:57:35 +1200

Although, if the show raises organ donation rates, then great. Tackiness be damned.

Mrs. Smith, you called it right.
We've been brilliantly suckered.

Jackie Clark

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 21:38:50 +1200

I'm so sorry about your friend, Haydn.

Nobody Important

Thu, 31 May 2007 16:59:22 +1200

You think that reality TV could not possibly drop the bar any lower and then something like this happens.... The people who make this piece of human-suffering-as-spectacle have a justification. Waiting for an organ is "just like playing the lottery", they say. "We're making people aware of this desperate situation."

…

Mrs Smith

Thu, 31 May 2007 16:32:14 +1200

Incidentally, it is a Dutch show, not American...“We know that this program is super controversial and some people will think it’s tasteless, but we think the reality is even more shocking and tasteless." It sounds quite awful. Although, if the show raises organ donation rates, then great. Tackiness be damned.

Hadyn Green

Thu, 31 May 2007 12:42:01 +1200

The second most famous maxim of PT Barnum:
"No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American Public"

Jeremy Andrew

Thu, 31 May 2007 10:48:57 +1200

There are many things that happen in the hospital system, they happen in the hospital system because that's the place for them to happen. I can't imagine it being well received if the hospitals started selling tickets to various interesting procedures. I imagine one could pretty much cover the cost…

Hadyn Green

Thu, 31 May 2007 10:47:13 +1200

Is that any worse in a moral sense?

Yes. As I doubt the Hospital system picks the people most likely to look good on TV and have an "interesting" story.

Neil Morrison

Thu, 31 May 2007 09:58:15 +1200

I find it horrible that the producers picked three from hundreds.

But, as the programme makers point out, that happens anyway in the hospital system. Is that any worse in a moral sense?

Hadyn Green

Thu, 31 May 2007 09:51:33 +1200

RE: donation

You can actually donate a lot of things without dying. Bone Marrow is one. My friend just died of bone marrow cancer (I can't spell Lukaemia) and was unable to get a transfer because only two people in the whole world showed up on the database as a…

Hadyn Green

Thu, 31 May 2007 09:48:08 +1200

RE: the TV show
The producers of the show obviously aren't going to show (ala American Idol) all the kidney-needers they went trhough before picking their final three.

You might find it horrible voting for one of the three, I find it horrible that the producers picked three from hundreds.

Neil Morrison

Thu, 31 May 2007 09:05:22 +1200

The programme makers make the reasonable claim that what they are doing is in essence what happens anyway with donors and recipients. So they argue there should be no moral objection to the programme.

It reminds me of Marc Hauser's train scenarios from his book [[http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Minds-Nature-Designed-Universal/dp/0060780703/ref=sr_1_1/105-6569588-7542841?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180558812&sr=1-1|Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our…

Brent Jackson

Thu, 31 May 2007 09:03:22 +1200

Yeah, that's the whole problem with organ donation for me. If I was lying there, supposed brain dead, with doctors keen to harvest my organs for their other patients, I would not want to donate my organs even if there was only 1 in a 1000 chance that I would…

Jeremy Andrew

Thu, 31 May 2007 08:47:55 +1200

Anjum, I know that also there's a huge can of worms around determining when exactly someone is braindead beyond the hope of recovery. I wouldn't want to be the one drawing the line in some of the iffier coma cases. That's where families informed consent is vital, but their consent…

Jeremy Andrew

Thu, 31 May 2007 08:33:56 +1200

no lifestyle changes, so the screw the new one up, too

Yeah, but for every George Best there's a Jonah Lomu (I know, his donor is still kicking...but still).

David Slack

Thu, 31 May 2007 07:18:50 +1200

no lifestyle changes, so the screw the new one up, too

I saw people like that who were in coronary care when I was there. Doesn't mean that not any of us change. Ron Gray lived another two decades after his heart transplant and threw himself into life with his second…

nic.wise

Thu, 31 May 2007 03:28:18 +1200

I agree that the show sounds, well, crazy. I've given up watching TV, so....

However, I dont think compulsory/optout organ donation is a good idea. I was all for donation, before I got talking to a friends wife – she's a (very good) anesthesiologist (knock-out-gal :) ) and has been…

anjum rahman

Wed, 30 May 2007 22:19:30 +1200

i heard a very argument against the notion that people opt out and i'm trying to remember what it is. forgive me if i get it wrong.

the issue is around informed consent, and that consent should be given at the time of the procedure. people give consent to things…

Ben Austin

Wed, 30 May 2007 17:02:22 +1200

Jeremy, I've heard that hospitals do that, and while I appreciate them trying to be nice to the families, you have to wonder what other clear and express wishes are ignored. Oh well

Jeremy Andrew

Wed, 30 May 2007 16:55:44 +1200

I'm with you, both on the total shonkiness of Endemol, and the opt out organ donation. Even the current (for want of a better word) system should work – many, many people (including me) have indicated on their driver's licences that they wish to be organ donors, but in practice,…

Public Address

Wed, 30 May 2007 16:55:44 +1200

Discussion from blog post.