I’ve been reading The Merchant of Venice lately, and I found myself wondering whether losing a pound of flesh would actually be fatal. Doctors amputate limbs all the time, and those must weigh over a pound. Or, if you’re heavier, a pound from the belly wouldn’t seem to do that much harm. Now, Antonio is usually portrayed as fairly trim and fit, and he certainly wouldn’t simply give up a limb, but I’m still curious. Would you die if you lost a pound of flesh?
Without medical intervention, almost certainly. With medical intervention, it depends on what flesh. Brain matter is probably not something you’d want to do without a pound of. Nor heart tissue.
A pound of muscle? No, at least if you were able to dress the wound and keep it from getting infected.
A pound of flesh from wherever Shylock chooses, and “nearest the merchant’s (Antonio’s) heart”? With Elizabethan medicine? Good luck surviving that.
OTOH… if we use a liberal interpretation of “flesh” to include blood… well, yeah, I’m pretty sure I’ve lost a “pound of flesh” that way in my life.
Repeatedly.*
So, for certain values of “flesh,” yeah… it can be done, and with few complications 
- (I’m not really good about donating, but almost definitely over 20 times in my life.)
No, no, no. This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood; the words expressly are “a pound of flesh.”
Being Jewish, don’t I get to decide what I want to take…? 
Not unless you can find it in the bill. You don’t even get to have a surgeon by, lest he bleed to death.
At the risk of getting this moved to CS, the other loophole that thwarts Shylock is that he cannot cut off either more or less than one pound, and if he does, his life is forfeit. But the bill does not say he has to cut it off all at once. Why can’t Shylock just cut off a little at a time, and weigh it out so he doesn’t go over?
Regards,
Shodan
I think I recall they actually mention getting a doctor on board to make sure he doesn’t die – after all, if Shylock murders him, that’s definitely bad. And then when Portia drops the “oh and no blood either” bomb, that’s when he knows he’s screwed.
Well assuming it was not your heart and you had enough medical care to deal with any bleeding and infections you would be fine.
Because the first piece would be less than one pound. If they intended to allow him to cut several smaller pieces, the “less than one pound” part is meaningless.
If we are talking about individual body parts, there are many you cannot survive without. Try living with no trachea.
Assuming “flesh” means skeletal muscle, and not the heart muscle itself, then that means the pectoral muscle. I don’t doubt that many people with equivalent battle or accidental wounds to the pectoral muscle survived in that era.
I agree, but I would not call most of those flesh - maybe it is just me.
I don’t feel like wading through the text again, but didn’t at least the Arden editors speculate that “wherever Shylock chooses” probably means “Antonio’s genitals”?
I don’t recall hearing anything like that. I doubt it, since 1) the text does mention taking flesh from near his heart, 2) “flesh” usually means skeletal muscle rather than organs such as genitals; and 3) Shylock evidently wants Antonio dead, not castrated.
Well not at all in keeping with the previous answers, people get more than a pound of fat liposucked out all the time with no problem; however, they do have a doctor present. 
Does it? Isn’t there flesh right there between the ribs? Start at the pectoral, obviously, but then cut inwards until you’ve left the heart and lungs exposed - a pound of flesh should be plenty.
Between the ribs are the intercostal muscles. However, there is connective tissue and membranes lining the inside of the thorax and surrounding the heart and lungs. You can’t expose the heart or lungs by removing muscle tissue alone.
That’s what I mean - it doesn’t say Shylock has to cut off exactly one pound in one go. Why can’t he cut it off an ounce at a time?
Regards,
Shodan