We have some organs which can be partly or completely removed, even though they have functions which are essential to life. Removal is possible because there are ways of naturally or artificially restoring the functions of these organs. Sometimes this is possible because the organs have a lot of reserve. For example, if ninety per cent of your liver is removed, the other 10 per cent, provided it is normal, can do everything that the whole liver used to do. If certain parts of your stomach or intestines are removed, digestion and elimination of waste products can still be good enough to keep you at your normal weight. The remaining intestine may need some help in the form of a special diet or medications that assist digestion of certain foods. Some hormone glands, such as the thyroid gland, can be completely removed because the hormones it normally produces can be taken in tablet form.
Sometimes the part to be removed can be reconstructed. For example, part of the oesophagus (gullet) can be removed and replaced with a piece of intestine. The bladder can be removed and replaced by an artificial one made of a piece of intestine, emptying through an opening in the abdominal wall into a bag (an ileal bladder). The rectum and anus can be removed and the remaining bowel made to empty into a bag through an opening in the abdominal wall (a colostomy).
Luckily we have two of some of the organs whose functions are essential to life— for example, kidneys, lungs and adrenal glands. One healthy kidney, lung or adrenal gland can keep our bodies functioning quite normally.
There are many organs and parts of the body which are not essential to life. Although, of course, their loss results in varying degrees of mutilation, inconvenience and psychological distress, we can live without things like an arm, a leg, an eye, a tongue, a larynx (voice-box), a breast, an ovary, a testicle or a uterus (womb).
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