| "Dare" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | SVU, Episode 19.16 | → |
| Production number: 19016 First aired: 14 March 2018 | ||
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| Written By Richard Sweren & Céline C. Robinson Directed By Christopher Misiano | ||
Summary[]
A girl's tragic death becomes a criminal case when a surgeon harvests her organs without parental consent.
Plot[]
A tween named Zoe Bergkamp was found unconscious in the Recreational Center gym due to a fall she suffered from the top of the bleachers, and apparently from a prank concocted by her own friends. She was rushed to Mercy Hospital for care, but due to brain swelling, she was pronounced dead by Dr. Lorraine Franchella during the surgery.
When the parents went to see their daughter Zoe, they could see that she had an incision from the chest to the waist, so Olivia Benson went on to question Dr. Franchella. She said that after being declared brain dead, her heart was still beating and there was a boy, Harry Lonegan, in Buffalo who had been waiting for a heart transplant for 3 years now, so she made the decision to remove Zoe's heart and save the boy's life.
The heart was already in the helicopter on the roof of the hospital, ready to take off, but Lieutenant Olivia Benson stopped it since it had been obtained illegally. DA Peter Stone brought the doctor to trial, because she did the procedure without the consent of her parents. The defense attorney showed that the doctor had saved 31 children, who needed organ transplantation. The district attorney took advantage of this statement to also accuse the doctor of having done other surgeries, without the consent of the parents, for which she forged the parents' signatures.
The Jury came to the determination to declare the doctor guilty of forgery in the second degree. After the trial, Stone came to Benson's office to talk about the case and also about Peter's late dad, Benjamin Stone. As they were talking, Detective Amanda Rollins came in and told them that they received a call from Buffalo, saying that the recipient child had died an hour ago.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Mariska Hargitay as Lieutenant Olivia Benson
- Kelli Giddish as Detective Amanda Rollins
- Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutuola
- Peter Scanavino as Detective Dominick Carisi, Jr.
- Philip Winchester as A.D.A. Peter Stone
Recurring cast[]
- Callie Thorne as Defense Attorney Nikki Staines
- Tom Titone as Judge Joshua Goldfarb
- Lynn Marocola as Officer
Guest cast[]
- Janel Moloney as Dr. Lorraine Franchella
- Jennifer Gambatese as Meredith Bergkamp
- Eloise Lushina as Lily Winterburn
- Kittson O'Neill as Vivian Winterburn
- Alfredo Narciso as Dylan Bergkamp
- Harriett D. Foy as Gwen Jackson
- James Mount as Neil Dixon
- Joey Curtis-Green as Harry Lonegan
- Lillian Ellen Jones as Lisa Dixon
- Nicolette Pierini as Zoe Bergkamp
- Adit Dileep as David Gidumal
- Allan Walker as Felix
- Fisher Neal as Marc Salazer
- Robin S. Walker as Callie Lydell
- Stacey Raymond as Coach Clare
- Mary Theresa Archbold as Mrs. Lonegan
- Matt Golden as Mr. Lonegan
- Jessica VanOss as Sporty Camp Kid
- Richard Wingert as Gallery Courtroom
- Mario Ficarra as Bartender
- Vanessa Schanen as Foreperson
References[]
Quotes[]
- Carisi: Hey, Rollins, when you were a kid, what was the dumbest thing you ever did?
- Rollins: Me and Stevie Harris used to steal our dads' .22s and go shoot cans off a stump, and one day, I dared him to go down to the stump and just hold the can an arm's length out. Dead-eye Amanda shoots a bullet hole right through the sleeve of his sweatshirt.
- Carisi: You know what, remind me never to go to the practice range with you.
- Rollins: Remind me never to let Jesse leave the house.
- Dr. Lorraine Franchella: What's going on?
- Benson: Zoe Bergkamp's incision; the one on her chest?
- Dr. Franchella: Yes?
- Tutuola: Why'd you cut her open like that?
- Dr. Franchella: To harvest her organs. Two beautiful kidneys, a liver, and a heart.
- Benson: Did the Bergkamps sign off on this?
- Dr. Franchella: Well, not exactly.
- Benson: Yes or no?
- Dr. Franchella: No.
- Benson: NYPD! Stop.
- Pilot: What's the problem?
- Benson: I need to take custody of this cooler. The organ may be evidence of a crime.
- Pilot: There's a terminally ill boy being prepped right now for a heart transplant.
- Benson: He's gonna have to wait for another one.
- Pilot: It's a miracle we have this one. He's been on the list for three years. So we're good to go?
- Benson: I don't know. I... uh, I need more time.
- Pilot: It's wheels up now or this kid's probably gonna die.
- Pilot: [to Olivia] Please, Lieutenant, you're making a huge mistake.
- Benson: I wish I had a choice.
- Pilot: You do. Just give me the cooler. I'll say I ignored your orders.
- Benson: I can't let you do that. You'd be committing a crime.
- Pilot: I promise I'll turn myself in once I get that heart to Buffalo. What if this was your sick kid, and that was the answer to all your prayers?
- Tutuola: Liv, maybe you and I got here too late.
- Benson: I can't. I'm sorry.
- Benson: You need explicit consent.
- Dr. Franchella: And the law is wrong.
- Benson: That's not for you to decide.
- Dr. Franchella: Would you bend the law to save a life, Lieutenant? [Olivia doesn't answer] Right. You didn't strike me as an absolutist.
- Carisi: We tracked down 35 children whose organs were harvested by Dr. Franchella, but only four families recall signing donation consent forms.
- Benson: What about the other 31?
- Carisi: They claimed they didn't sign anything.
- Tutuola: It wasn't easy telling 'em their dead kid's organs were in somebody else.
- Rollins: Better you than me.
- Carisi: Yeah. Now, even though the families didn't consent, there's a completed form for each kid.
- Tutuola: I'm no expert, but the handwriting's the same on all the forms.
- Carisi: Yeah, look at the sevens. Every time she uses one for a date or the time, it's got a European cross.
- Rollins: Well, Dr. Franchella studied at Oxford for two years.
- Benson: So she signed all 31 consent forms. At a minimum, that's forgery.
- Peter Stone: All we have against Dr. Franchella are the forgeries.
- Carisi: Mm-hmm.
- Peter Stone: Did anything turn up in her financials?
- Carisi: No, we've been over it three times. She didn't take a dime for any of this. But she does donate a sizeable amount to charities.
- Rollins: Well, what's she looking at in terms of jail time?
- Peter Stone: Seven years, times 32.
- Tutuola: That's a lot of time over some paperwork.
- Peter Stone: And if Zoe's parents make a victims' statement after a conviction, don't be surprised if she gets double digits upstate.
- Peter Stone: When you vetted Dr. Franchella's financials, there was a notation about her charitable donations.
- Benson: Mm-hmm.
- Peter Stone: Could she be laundering money she's getting for organs through those donations?
- Benson: I'll have my people check it out.
- Rollins: Hey. We found something that you need to see. Dr. Franchella donates $50,000 every year to the Children's Heart Procurement Fund.
- Peter Stone: That's very generous.
- Rollins: It's not the amount that jumped out at us. It's who she dedicates the donation to.
- [Stone closing statement]
- Stone: Some of you may have a little red heart on your driver's license, and that's because you chose to be an organ donor. The government didn't make that decision for you, and a doctor certainly didn't, because it's your body, and only you can decide what to do with it. Dylan and Meredith Bergkamp did not relinquish that right, that fundamental right to make that highly personal and intimate choice for their daughter Zoe. Instead, a zealot, motivated by her own personal tragedy, stole it with the stroke of a pen. While Zoe's heart was still beating, the defendant pilfered her organs and stitched up her empty torso, hoping that no one would notice. Ms. Staines is basically telling you the ends justify the means. Whose ends? Dr. Franchella arrogantly decided that she knew better than the patients' families, that she knows better than you. She did this by breaking the law. She did this by imposing her own morality. She did this by playing God.
Background Information and Notes[]
- Other episodes in the Law & Order franchise that deal with organ donation are the SVU episode "Parts", the Law & Order episode "Sonata for Solo Organ" and its Law & Order: UK adaptation "Sacrifice", and the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "Ex Stasis".
- In both this episode and "Parts", a member of SVU has a dilemma involving a sick child receiving an illegally obtained organ, with Benson wrestling to give the child a heart in this episode.
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
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|
Apartment of |
Mercy Hospital |
Northeast Organ Network |
Apartment of |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Supreme Court |
Supreme Court |
Supreme Court |
Supreme Court |
| Previous episode: "In Loco Parentis" |
"Dare" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 19 |
Next episode: "Send In The Clowns" |