About that organ donor show

The thing to remember is that this is meant as a publicity stunt to draw attention to the precarious donor situation in the Netherlands, where ever since the government started its big publicity campaign the amount of donors has only dropped. It’s not really real; no matter who will be the winner in this show, it’s going to be the doctors who decide who this kidney goes to, based purely on medical grounds. I doubt whether you even can donate your organs for use by specific persons.

As a publicity stunt this show has already served its purpose, as organ donation is back on the political agenda again. It’s clear the current system isn’t working. That’s because it’s an opt-in, rather than an opt-out system and worse a system where the deceased donor’s family can override their wishes even if they’ve registered themselves as donor.

The first step to change this is to switch to an opt-out system where the family cannot override the individual’s decision and you have to specifically state you do not wish to be a donor rather than the other way around.