• Question: can a human or animal survive without a few organs? if so, then how many?

    Asked by renesmee to Del, Catherine, John, Krishna, Mo Rassul on 12 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Catherine Mansfield

      Catherine Mansfield answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      Yes, in fact it is quite common for people to have certain organs removed and then live perfectly normal lives.
      People have 2 kidneys and we can quite easily live with just one kidney.
      The spleen is an organ which filters the blood and fights infections. We can live without the spleen although we will suffer from more infections.
      The appendix is a small organ which is often removed if it becomes inflamed or ruptured. We do not know exactly what the function of the appendix is but we can live perfectly well without it.

    • Photo: Adelle Thrower

      Adelle Thrower answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      Yup the human body is amazing at keeping itself alive without some organs!!
      Sometimes we may need medicine to help us not have the organ.
      We can live without one of our kidneys and one of our lungs.
      We can ditch out tonsils, appendix, gallbladder, spleen, pancreas, overies, prostate, thyroid, thymus, uterus, testicles and breasts. Obviously it’s a better situation to have all these though!!

    • Photo: John Foster

      John Foster answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      We do need most of our organs, but we can do without our appendix, we can survive with one kidney and we can live just about okay without a spleen. We do also have machines in hospitals that can keep people alive without some very important organs working, such as the lungs.

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