During the week, I looked at reality TV's new ethical low when producers of a Dutch show announced they would screen a terminally ill woman selecting one of three patients to receive her kidneys. At the time, I said it was just one step away from being a Snuff movie.

Now they have come out and said the show was actually a hoax. The "dying" woman turned out to be a healthy actress, and the entire exercise was ostensibly aimed at drawing the public's attention to the shortage of organ donors.

The Dutch media were generally positive about the whole thing, but there is no doubt that the ethics here suck big time.

First, you would have to ask what the producers were aiming for: generating public awareness, or creating a ratings winner? You try and guess which one.

The producers might claim they had a high moral purpose but they're insulting the public's intelligence.

This was a ghoulish exercise aimed at exploiting people's vulnerabilities, particularly those who would have been waiting for organ donations. "These people should realise that if you have kidney failure you will eventually die. The only thing that can temporarily save you is dialysis or a kidney donation. To actually play games with people's hopes is appalling,'' Tim Statham, chief executive of Britain's National Kidney Federation, told The Times.