During college when I studied Anatomy and Physiology we had to learn the purpose of every portion of the body. It is amazing the purpose one seemingly small and insignificant body part has. Not only that but all our body’s organs are so interrelated that if one stops working its effect can be noticed in several body parts or organs.

Since that study years ago I have always believed that each body part was designed for a reason and that removal or tampering with our body should be done with the utmost caution and prayerful consideration for God’s design.

For example:

• Tonsils are basically lymph nodes in the throat that are part of our immune system. However, doctors routinely remove tonsils in patients for a variety of reasons, such as repeated sore throats. Many doctors feel that the tonsils are not really necessary and thus the removal is of little consequence.

• Gall Bladder removal is so common it is becoming harder and harder to find people who still have their gall bladder. However, gall bladder removal does have some effect on the digestive processes. Some people experience more difficulty than others do after gall bladder removal.

• Appendix removal is given a little more concern and usually is reserved for serious conditions such as a rupture or appendicitis. Yet even with this organ doctors think nothing of its removal. What is more surprising is the times when a person is having surgery for some unrelated reason and the doctor suggests removing the appendix for preventive measures.

There are other body parts that doctors routinely remove for varying reasons, particularly the female reproductive system. Unless a woman is still desiring to bear children often any problems with the reproductive system will lead to discussing hysterectomies. Everyone is always quick to point out that removing them will decrease the chances of cancer. Yet they gloss over the other effects their removal may cause.

Here again though is the ignoring of the fact that God designed our bodies to work in harmony with each body part. There are functions of each organ that scientist have yet to discover. What may today be considered a minor organ and of no value, especially when there is some difficulty such as inflammation, may soon be discovered to have some very important significance.

While there will always be good, valid and life saving reasons to remove an organ, the casual attitude that looks at removing organs as of little consequence should be avoided. Who are we to say that God’s design included unnecessary and only troublesome parts of the body.

Just yesterday I read about how scientist are rethinking the value of the appendix. But never had I really given consideration to the effect that Darwin’s evolution has had on our actual medical fields. But now that makes sense, if Darwin taught that man was evolving then of course there would be body parts that eventually became unnecessary in our “development.” The belief in such an idea as evolution has affected us in ways we may never realize.

The Appendix: Useful and in Fact Promising

The body’s appendix has long been thought of as nothing more than a worthless evolutionary artifact, good for nothing save a potentially lethal case of inflammation.

Now researchers suggest the appendix is a lot more than a useless remnant. Not only was it recently proposed to actually possess a critical function, but scientists now find it appears in nature a lot more often than before thought. And it’s possible some of this organ’s ancient uses could be recruited by physicians to help the human body fight disease more effectively.

In a way, the idea that the appendix is an organ whose time has passed has itself become a concept whose time is over.

“Maybe it’s time to correct the textbooks,” said researcher William Parker, an immunologist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C. “Many biology texts today still refer to the appendix as a ‘vestigial organ.'”

Remember we are wonderfully made by God and not with “vestigal organs”.

Psalms 139:13-16

13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them. ESV