The hierarchy of organs and political incorrectness

Are brains more important than bowels? The hierarchy of medicine suggests so. The pecking order seems to be (in order of the doctors who look after them) brains, hearts, lungs, bowels, and the genitourinary system. The order probably reflects how quickly failure of the organ will kill you. Those who deal with the genitourinary system are clearly low in the hierarchy, but they may be consoled by two papers in this week's journal discussing their territory.

Researchers from London followed 442 women having operations for stress incontinence and found that …