posted May 30, 2007 12:03 AM         

Win a kidney on reality TV
Big Brother producers have caused more controversy by filming three critically ill patients competing for a kidney transplant.

Dutch company, Endemol, which created Big Brother in 1999, is now filming The Big Donor Show for broadcaster BNN.

It involves a terminally ill woman who will decide which of three young patients will get her kidney.

All three are critically ill and on dialysis as they wait for a donor organ to be made available, reports Algemeen Dagblad.

Viewers will be able to advise the 37-year-old woman, known as Lisa, via text messages which of the candidates to pick.

Several transplant patient organisations and politicians have objected to The Big Donor Show which is to.

Reiner Hofmann, spokesman for the Dutch Transplant Foundation, said: "This is a scandal, it is no better than selling organs. They are taking advantage of people in a desperate situation for entertainment."

But BNN has defended its actions by saying the show is meant to highlight the acute shortage of donors in the Netherlands.