Which characteristic of life is not essential to the survival of an individual organism?
reproduction
growth
response
development

The correct answer would be the reproduction.

All living organisms whether unicellular or multi-cellular start their lives as a single cell. The cells then grow, divide and differentiate which help in the growth and development of the organism.

The growth and development help the organisms to attain the characteristics of the species which help them to survive in an ecosystem. The unicellular organisms do not divide for their development but they grow in size to attain maturity.

Response or consciousness is one of the characteristics of life which is essential for the survival of an organism.

In contrast, reproduction helps in the survival of the population of the species but not the in the survival of the organism. Organisms which become sterile or sterile by birth (such as honey bee, ants et cetera) can survive throughout their life.

Hence, we can conclude that reproduction is the characteristic of life, which is not essential to the survival of an individual organism

there are so many examples for that in different areas, like biology experiment carried out in our lab recently.

here's one link: