Campaign targets TV's skewed view of organ donation

Creative license is no excuse for inaccuracies that can discourage donation, says a new advocacy effort aimed at Hollywood writers and producers.

By Kevin B. O'Reilly, AMNews staff. Sept. 3, 2007.

About 20 million Americans tuned in for an October 2005 episode of ABC's medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" in which a woman is prematurely declared brain dead. When an intern discovers she is still responsive to stimuli, a literal tug-of-war over the patient breaks out, and the transplant team chides the hospital staff for its resistance.

Such inaccurate and negative portrayals of organ donation and transplantation are surprisingly common on TV and feed the public's fears about the process, according to new research.

Now, a coalition of more than three dozen organ procurement and transplant organizations, called Donate Life Hollywood, is urging TV producers and writers to think twice before taking creative license in telling stories that could indirectly hurt the more than 96,000 patients waiting for organ transplants.

The campaign targets a "top 10" list of inaccurate storylines that recur frequently on TV, such as the notion that Americans are killed for their organs or that a black market for organs exists in the U.S. Other common lapses include misrepresenting brain death and how organs are allocated.

"If there were a storyline about someone who contracted HIV from a toilet seat, there would be an uproar," said Tenaya Wallace, director of the Donate Life Hollywood campaign and a spokeswoman for the OneLegacy Transplant Donor Network in Southern California. "By presenting that inaccuracy, you would be creating a public health crisis. It's the same thing with organ donation."