Before a conclusion can be reached concerning whether or not the breast qualifies as an organ separate from skin and subcutaneous fat, it is necessary to define the word "organ" in a meaningful, coherent, lucid, reliable, and repeatable way. What follows now are definitions of "organ" as they appear in different contemporary standard dictionaries, both medical and non-medical ones:

A somewhat independent body part that performs a special function and functions. Dorland's Medical Dictionary, 27^th ed. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Co., 1988;1187.

A part of the body having a special function. Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, 19^th ed. Cambridge: F. A. Davis Co., 1997;1515.

Any part of the body exercising a specific function, as of respiration, secretion, or digestion. Stedman's Concise Medical Dictionary, 3^rd ed. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 1997.

A collection of different tissues that form a distinct structure in the body with a particular function or functions. Blacks's Medical Dictionary, 39^th ed. Madison Books, 1999;400.

A self contained part of organism having a special vital function. Oxford English Dictionary, available from www.oed.com.

A differentiated structure consisting of cells and tissue and performing some specific function in an organism. Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, available from http://www.m-w.com/home.

A relatively independent part of body that carries out one or more special functions. MedTerms Medical Dictionary, available from http://www.medterms.com.

A group of tissues which work together as a single unit to perform a particular function within a multicellular organism. BioTech Life Science Dictionary, available from http://biotech.icmb.utexas.edu.

A part of the body of a person, animal, or plant that performs a special job. Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, available from http://publishing.cambridge.org.

In animals the organs are generally made of several tissues, one of which usually predominates and determines the principal function of the organ. On-line Medical Dictionary, available from http://cancerweb.ncl.ac.uk/omd/index.html.

The denominators in common of the definitions of "organ" just quoted, some of them very different from one another, are (1) being a part of the body and (2) having a specialized function. But that definition is fulfilled by eyelids and hands, which are not deemed by any dictionary, medical text, or any knowledgeable person, to be organs. If the breast is considered to be an organ solely by virtue of its singular apocrine (mammary) gland and the specific function of it in post-pubescent females, then the axillae and the external auditory canals also qualify as organs, each of those sites bearing particular apocrine glands with a particular function. Because in our judgment each of the definitions of "organ" quoted above is defective, we set forth now our own effort at capturing in words the essence of "organ" thus:

Organ: A part of an organism that is distinctive morphologically (grossly and microscopically) and biologically, the latter in the form of one or more specialized functions that are unique to it.

If that definition of "organ" is correct, then the breast does not qualify as an organ per se, but rather a distinctive region of skin and subcutaneous fat.