# Death by a thousand paper cuts. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 16, 2011, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts/582058 "2011-05-16T03:03:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts/582058/1 "2011-05-16T03:03:05Z")
I suppose most people are familiar with the idiom ‘death by a thousand paper cuts.’ I’m wondering if such a thing would actually kill you. Lets rule out obscure things like necrotizing faciitis or other external bacteria type thingys. Would the 1,000 cuts kill you? How? Exsanguination? Pain? Something else? Do tell. Uh, answer is not needed fast. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kilmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a6a055/32.png) [@Kilmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilmore)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts/582058/2 "2011-05-16T03:07:15Z")
If they all happened at once, I imagine you might die of shock. Also, there would have to be considerable force to propel a thousand pieces of paper to where they’d cut someone like stationery grapeshot. That definitely could prove fatal. Taken one after the other, it seems more like torture. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts/582058/3 "2011-05-16T03:07:21Z")
I’ve never heard ‘death by a thousand paper cuts’. I’ve always heard it as ‘death of a thousand cuts’. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts/582058/4 "2011-05-16T03:10:43Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I’ve never heard ‘death by a thousand paper cuts’. It’s the government bureaucrat version. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts/582058/5 "2011-05-16T03:14:30Z")
The following spoiled link to a Wikipedia article contains a somewhat grainy photograph of a nude person who has been/is being sliced. Moderately gory. [Wikipedia link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_slicing) ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts/582058/6 "2011-05-16T04:45:05Z")
The size of cuts they were taking, I doubt they would get past 10. That picture’s sure not NSFV (Not Safe From Vomit) ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts/582058/7 "2011-05-16T04:55:41Z")
Impossible to answer without some specificity about the length, depth and location of the cuts. People certainly have been lashed to death, and a lash tears the skin open. If you want to be very liter about them all being like normal paper cuts, then I am really doubtful. A lot of paper cuts don’t even bleed, so we’re left with the question of dying purely from pain. Does having a heart attack along the way count? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts/582058/8 "2011-05-16T05:07:13Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I’ve never heard ‘death by a thousand paper cuts’. I’ve always heard it as ‘death of a thousand cuts’. Same here. And in Gary Jennings’ excellent novel _The Journeyer_, a fictional account of Marco Polo’s travels, the death by a thousand cuts is very graphically explained, and performed on a couple of characters, and it ain’t pretty. (The “artiste” was skilled in keeping you alive as long as he wanted, no matter the damage done.) ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts/582058/9 "2011-05-16T06:24:31Z")
What if all thousand cuts were in the same place? ---
**Author:** ![mac\_bolan00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@mac\_bolan00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mac_bolan00)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts/582058/10 "2011-05-16T09:39:18Z")
using a very sharp knife, the cuts are distributed around the body. the cuts do not fully lacerate the skin but only partly through. this is supposed to make the wound bleed continuosly. so you die from bleeding. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts/582058/11 "2011-05-16T10:52:27Z")
Why continuously? I’ve had some bad paper cuts, but none bled continuously. A true paper cut (as opposed to ripping open my arm on a clamshell package) almost by definition can’t be that deep. But is it safe? Being generous, let’s say each cut puts out ten drops of blood. Looking at Wiki, the largest easy-to-compare drop is the medical drop at 1/12 mL. So let’s be even more generous (and make the math easier) and say each cut puts out 12 drops. That’s 1 mL per cut. If the average body contains between 5 and 6 liters of blood, that’s quite a drop (heh). Can the average human withstand that loss and survive? ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts/582058/12 "2011-05-16T13:32:33Z")
It’s not paper cuts, just cuts. Sounds like someone inserted “paper” as a joke. I did not realize this was ever a literal form of torture, I always thought it was a metaphor. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts/582058/13 "2011-05-16T14:00:01Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > It’s not paper cuts, just cuts. Sounds like someone inserted “paper” as a joke. I may have seen that in a Dilbert cartoon. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts/582058/14 "2011-05-16T14:44:33Z")
A friend of mine was attacked by the village idiot / bully one night. Typical 40 y/o suburbanite set upon by mean drunk 6’3" 300lb 22 y/o farm boy. My pal’s only defensive weapon was a small swiss army knife with a 1 - 1/1-2" blade. He slashed the bad guy pretty thoroughly on the arms & face, then shouted “Hey look, you’re bleeding to death!!”. The guy looked, panicked, & took off. Bad guy was arrested after he showed up 20 minutes later at the local hospital. Would the untreated wounds have been fatal? I have no clue. But it did add up to a bunch of blood lost. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts/582058/15 "2011-05-16T15:59:15Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > A friend of mine was attacked by the village idiot / bully one night. Typical 40 y/o suburbanite set upon by mean drunk 6’3" 300lb 22 y/o farm boy. Somehow the first line of your post made me think you were quoting song lyrics. Spent a second looking at them and trying to think if I recognized it. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts/582058/16 "2011-05-16T16:12:24Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I’ve never heard ‘death by a thousand paper cuts’. I’ve always heard it as ‘death of a thousand cuts’. Concur, as others have. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts/582058/17 "2011-05-16T16:41:31Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Somehow the first line of your post made me think you were quoting song lyrics. Spent a second looking at them and trying to think if I recognized it. And when the cuttin’ was done the only part that wasn’t bloody was the soles of the big man’s feet. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts/582058/18 "2011-05-16T16:51:47Z")
> [@alice\_in\_wonderland](#): > > I suppose most people are familiar with the idiom ‘death by a thousand paper cuts.’ > > I’m wondering if such a thing would actually kill you. > > Lets rule out obscure things like necrotizing faciitis or other external bacteria type thingys. > > Would the 1,000 cuts kill you? How? Exsanguination? Pain? Something else? > > Do tell. Uh, answer is not needed fast. 🙂 I think that by leaving out bacteria you are hindering the discussion. Obviously leaving out rare bacteria, what about a simple staph infection. Now multiply by 1000. Could the body handle that? ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts/582058/19 "2011-05-16T16:52:07Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I’ve never heard ‘death by a thousand paper cuts’. I’ve always heard it as ‘death of a thousand cuts’. > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Same here. And in Gary Jennings’ excellent novel _The Journeyer_, a fictional account of Marco Polo’s travels, the death by a thousand cuts is very graphically explained, . . . > [@CookingWithGas](#): > > It’s not paper cuts, just cuts. Sounds like someone inserted “paper” as a joke. > > I did not realize this was ever a literal form of torture, I always thought it was a metaphor. > [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Concur, as others have. I also concur. “Death of a Thousand Cuts” is a form of torture. “Death of a Thousand Paper Cuts” means you hate your job. > [@Duckster](#): > > It’s the government bureaucrat version. ---
**Author:** ![Parenchyma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Parenchyma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Parenchyma)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2011, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts/582058/20 "2011-05-16T18:11:51Z")
Losing a tiny drop of blood with each cut can do it. I have seen a kitten so infested with fleas that the cumulative blood loss from all those little bites dropped its packed cell volume down to 5% (from a normal of 30 to 40%). It didn’t make it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts/582058.md?page=2)