5/28/2007

in

Three people will compete for a kidney transplant from a terminally ill woman.

Jess Boettger

The Dutch have taken a new approach to the problem of awaiting an organ transplant. Why not win a kidney, seems to be their logic. A new Dutch game show offers contestants that very opportunity. In a country where the waiting list can leave a person in need of a transplant hanging for four and a half years (on average), TV producers have come up with the brilliant idea of making contestants vie for a terminally ill woman's kidney. There are three contestants, all of them a match for the donor's organs. The woman, not preferring the anonymous donor policy of the country, chose to give her kidney in a manner that ensured she would meet the one who received it.  
  
The contestants must win sympathy from Lisa with details of their lives and day-to-day struggles. Laurens Drillich, the chairman of the Dutch TV network airing the show, has admitted himself that he finds the subject matter "tasteless." However, he sees it as a lesser evil to provide these three contestants with a 33 percent chance of getting the kidney they need to live, much better odds than they get in the real world.