One of the revived Doctor Who’s best episodes to date has been the series one story Bad Wolf…which skewerd the love of reality shows in a future where such programs have spiralled far out of control.
What a pity (actually, what a bloody SHAME) this fiction seems to have become a reality…as you can read in this story:
KIDNEY DONATION REALITY SHOW WILL GO AHEAD, DUTCH NETWORK SAYS
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 29, 2007 | 9:39 AM ET - The Associated Press
A Dutch reality show that claims to be trying to draw attention to a shortage of organ donors said Tuesday it will go ahead with a program in which a terminally ill woman will choose a contestant to receive one of her kidneys.
Big Donor Show has been attacked as unethical and tasteless. At least one member of the Dutch parliament plans to ask the government to block Friday’s broadcast.
“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: waiting for an organ is just like playing the lottery,” Laurens Drillich, chairman of the BNN network, said in a statement.
He said waiting lists in the Netherlands are more than four years long and 200 patients die annually for lack of a donor.
The network identified the donor as “Lisa,” a 37-year-old woman with an inoperable brain tumour. During the show, she will hear interviews with the three candidates, their families and friends before choosing who will get her kidney.
The show is being produced by Endemol NV, the creator of the Big Brother series.
Is this what our world has come to…our desire for cheap, instant gratification television taken to extremes that would make even the most vile people sick with disgust? This isn’t simply bottom-of-the-barrel entertainment…this is spectacle I can only compare to a public execution…and even that pales in comparison with this devaluation of civilized behaviour.
As for the woman donating her kidney on national Dutch television — using what amounts to a game show — I can only surmise that she is one twisted, cold-blooded moron! Doesn’t she believe the medical system will give her kidney to someone who needs it? Is she suffering so much in her real life that she has to exploit her pain on trans-continental television…along with the pain of three other people?
Every year I set my senior students a project with a single question: does humanity deserve to survive? Based on the evidence of this travesty of a television program…my personal answer would be very much a NEGATIVE. Animals aren’t this barbaric…but the human race just laps this gobshite up…and then proceeds to come up with even more ridiculously pathetic experiences and label them as “entertainment”.
We really are doomed, ladies and gentlemen. Better pick an organ and price it out while you can…
