• Question: can you be born with no lips or kidneys

    Asked by anon-225186 to Simon, Paul, Nawapat, Natalie, Katy on 21 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Paul Laurance-Young

      Paul Laurance-Young answered on 21 Nov 2019:


      It is possible, but I strongly doubt you would survive to even be born if you were born without kidneys: Your kidneys are one of the absolutely essential organs of your body!
      As for your lips, these are simply skin with more blood vessels present in them (that is why they are red/pink). Like any part of your skin, some developmental disorders mean that you can indeed simply not develop skin in this area.

    • Photo: Natalie Fowler

      Natalie Fowler answered on 21 Nov 2019:


      I agree with Paul, kidneys are extremely important and that’s why patients sometimes need kidney transplants to live. Failing kidneys or no kidneys would mean that you couldn’t survive for very long at all. Lips on the other hand are a type of skin structure and these could be made by a plastic surgeon if somebody damaged their lips or was born without them.

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