Word: organisms
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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When something seems utterly unbelievable, it perhaps ought not to be believed. Dutch television broadcaster BNN provoked an international uproar this week when it announced plans to air a live TV game show pitting rival kidney patients against one another in pursuit of a donor organ. But when the show ran on Friday, it proved to be a hoax...
...idea was "beyond even our standards," in the words of presenter Patrick Lodiers, referring to the notoriety the youth-oriented network has gained from previous controversial shows. But the network's stated intention had always been to raise awareness of the shortage of donor organs. "We wanted to make a statement," BNN chairman Laurens Drillich said in a press release after the show. "That worked. In the past seven days there has been more debate about organ donation than in the last seven years...
...organ donor was identified as "37-year-old Lisa," about to die of brain cancer. She proved to be an actress. The contestants, who were also in on the hoax, are real kidney-failure patients, BNN says...
...More than a thousand people are currently on the waiting list for a kidney in The Netherlands, while only 634 kidneys were transplanted in all of 2006. Despite concerted efforts by the government and medical organizations, the number of organ donors is insufficient to meet demand, and is even falling according to the latest figures...
...network claims firsthand experience of the shortage of donor organs. Its founder, Bart de Graaff, died five years ago from kidney failure while on a waiting list for a transplant. The show was dedicated to De Graaff, and was punctuated with calls to the public to register as organ donors. The number of responses is not yet known...