• Question: What do you think is the most important organ in the body?

    Asked by charlottedevitt to Dalya, Derek, Sarah, Tim, Tom on 19 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Derek McKay-Bukowski

      Derek McKay-Bukowski answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      They are all really important, from our skin to our spleen.

      But I think that the brain is probably the critical one. I could imagine a brain in a bubbling glass container, all wired up, thinking about how to answer IAS2011 questions.

      By I couldn’t imagine my pancreas doing that!

    • Photo: Dalya Soond

      Dalya Soond answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      They’re all important in their own ways and work together to help us function as best as we can.
      However, there are some organs we can live without with modern medicine. These include organs such as the thyroid, bladder, bowel, gall bladder, pancreas (I think), the appendix, tonsils, adenoids, lymph nodes, spleen, kidneys. You can also lose parts of organs aznd still live, like 1 (but not both) lungs, parts of your brain, liver, etc.

      Did you know that skin is the largest organ in your body? I’ve now decided if you lose all of that organ, you probably couldn’t exist even with modern medicine.

    • Photo: Tim Millar

      Tim Millar answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      Of course they are all important but the heart seems to be the most protected when it comes to oxygen supply. The heart takes 70% of all the oxygen the body takes in and if oxygen is restricted, you would faint first through lack of blood to the brain before your heart would miss out on its supply.

    • Photo: Tom Crick

      Tom Crick answered on 18 Jun 2011:

      This is a tough question to answer! There are all important because they all have a vital function e.g. skin, spleen, liver, etc.

      You could argue the brain, because without it we would just be a big bag of meat!

    • Photo: Sarah Thomas

      Sarah Thomas answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      I think the most important organ is the brain. Without it we just wouldn’t be who we are, and we certainly wouldn’t be able to function.

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