diff --git a/code/modules/mob/living/carbon/human/species.dm b/code/modules/mob/living/carbon/human/species.dm
index 57b1155aed6bf..2c199c677542b 100644
--- a/code/modules/mob/living/carbon/human/species.dm
+++ b/code/modules/mob/living/carbon/human/species.dm
@@ -334,7 +334,7 @@ GLOBAL_LIST_EMPTY(features_by_species)
 					oldorgan = null
 			else
 				oldorgan.Remove(C, special = TRUE)
-				required_organs -= oldorgan
+				required_organs -= oldorgan.type
 				QDEL_NULL(oldorgan) //we cannot just tab this out because we need to skip the deleting if it is a decoy brain.
 
 		if(oldorgan)
@@ -342,7 +342,7 @@ GLOBAL_LIST_EMPTY(features_by_species)
 		else if(should_have && !(initial(neworgan.zone) in excluded_zones))
 			used_neworgan = TRUE
 			neworgan.Insert(C, TRUE, FALSE)
-			required_organs |= neworgan
+			required_organs |= neworgan.type
 
 		if(!used_neworgan)
 			qdel(neworgan)