Will I Still Love My Mum? (C4)

How To Start Your Own Country (BBC2)

TEN-year-olds' Hannah and Kayley's lives are in their hands. They must make a life-or-death decision whether to have a transplant operation. Is it right to ask a ten-year-old sick child to make a life-or-death decision about their future?

Hannah must decide if she wants the organ transplant that could save her.

If she doesn't have the operation, she will die. Even if she agrees, the transplant won't happen unless a suitable donor is found. She might not even survive the surgery. If she does, there's a 20 per cent chance she'll die in the first year and a 40 per cent one she won't survive five years.

No wonder doctors describe the situation as a "terrible lottery".

Cystic fibrosis, the UK's most common hereditary disease, puts parents and their children in an almost impossible position, as this moving documentary clearly showed.

Putting such a burden on those so young seems unfair, but doctors refuse to proceed without the child's approval, even if the parents want them to. The physical and mental pressure on patients means doctors need their full co-operation if they've any chance of recovery.

The film followed two ten-year-olds, Hannah and Kayley, as their deteriorating conditions meant that a transplant was the only option left.

Cystic fibrosis affects the lungs and digestive system, making it difficult for sufferers to digest food or breath. They need to regular medication, oxygen to breathe and physiotherapy twice a day.

The documentary's approach was matter-of-fact but sympathetic, without exploiting the awful situation in which the families found themselves.

Hannah overcame her reluctance to have a transplant because she was terrified of the operation and has a new heart and lungs. She's now running around, eating and doing all the things she never could before. Nine months on, Kayley is still waiting for a transplant.

Another sufferer, Nicky West, turned down a transplant, although the illness stopped her leading a normal life when she was 28. She chose death, devoting her energy to raising £2m for research into a cure. She wanted time to say goodbye to her friends and plan her funeral.

"I'll go when I'm ready," she said, before becoming too ill to continue the interview. She died 11 days later.

Next to such matters, How To Start Your Own Country seemed frivolous and forgettable. Danny Wallace, one of those TV presenters whose personality is as much a part of the programme as anything else, decided to set up his own country.

"I fancy being a prince or a king," he said, after meeting a man who'd established an independent state on a war fort in the North Sea.

He met a man who sells property on the Moon. Don't worry if you haven't bought yet, he has nine billion acres left. And he tried to invade Eel Pie Island on the Thames. He launched a waterborne invasion by rowing boat until spotting a footbridge to the island. "I could have been invading 20 minutes ago," he mused.