The episode is actually Law and Order, Special Vicims Unit, and involves a ARPKD boy (although he's a minor character). The main theme is a black market transplant system operating in NYC and the SVU finds out about the program, shuts it down, but there is a kidney that is a perfect match to this young boy (around 9-10 years old) and the surgeon (who is supposedly doing all of this on his own, no support staff, etc., so utterly unrealistic, but TV at it's finest) is the next "eligible" and somehow one of the police officers "relents" and allows the boy to receive the kidney.

The organ donation community (have no idea about the PKD Foundation) came out with statements against the premise behind the program, the illegal, black market organ procurement program. It's ILLEGAL and UNFAIR to those who follow the rules.

The only positive that came out was the fact that PKD affects children...but that was negated by the fact that the statement was the child would die without a kidney (no mention of dialysis was made) and the fact the parents (father was the parent pushing for the black market organ) weren't following the rules (although the child and the other recipients, past and potential future) were listed on the national and regional UNOS listing (albeit not with those terms used). It was actually implied that using that list and knowing the names and blood types was how they tracked down the person who was running this program as well (who would be the next person to benefit from an organ based on who was next on "the list"...never mind that there isn't one list but at least 5 based on blood types, infinite other factors needed to match a kidney!). BTW, the boy's father was arrested in the program, but after his son received the kidney and the father was able to explain to his son why he had to leave...sad ending, sob, sob.).

BTW, IF someone receives a black market transplant or transplant via transplant tourism, they are NOT eligible for Medicare. Illegal acts to improve your kidney function does not get someone government funded health care! It would be different if you were living for an extended period as a US citizen in a foreign country, maintaning your US citizenship and paying taxes as appropriate (if appropriate) and the country you lived in permitted non-citizen, resident aliens to get transplants (LEGALLY) and then you returned to the US (e.g. someone who lived in Spain for a couple of years, which has a very high donation rate and happened to receive a kidney and came back to the US shortly thereafter).

Bottom line, it was an interesting work of fiction and the "FBI psychiatrist" character in the program did a good job at relating the real rates of the need for organ donations (all organs as well as kidneys in particular) during the program, as well as some of the challenges with black market programs (basically an intermediary-directed donations that circumvents the nationwide "fair share" process). As for PKD, little to nothing was said in terms of education, nothing about what the disease is, what it does, or anything other than it affected this 9-10 year old boy (and falsely implied that donation only is the treatment; dialysis isn't an option, which simply isn't true, although tranplant is most assuredly the preferred treatment for kids, so they have more opportunity to grow and be normal kids than be hooked up to machines every night or 3-4 times a week).

Just my 2 cents....

It's frustrating, isn't it? You get all excited to see that kidney donation and PKD are mentioned and then the facts are...well, barely there! I found the same thing after I adopted my son. All the false info about adoption, especially open adoption (we have a fully open adoption with my son's birth fmaily and it has been a wonderful experience!) can be very damaging and affect the way the public views it. I also felt that way whenI went through IVF. I know cops who get so annoyed about the way police departments are portrayed on TV. Well, at least they are raising some kind of awareness about kidney donation!