# worst way to die **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 11, 2002, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403 "2002-05-11T00:25:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/1 "2002-05-11T00:25:45Z")
What would be the worst way to die? I don’t mean murder or torture, I mean something that could conceivably happen in the course of normal events. For me, the idea of not being able to breathe is the worst. Either drowning or choking is just so horrible. Even when I get a little somthing stuck in my throat, I just get panicky. ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/2 "2002-05-11T00:28:47Z")
Drowning has got to be the worst. I mean, you can come up with all sorts of complicated contraptions and stuff that cause death…but drowning…I couldn’t even watch The Abyss when that guy was drowning. How horrid. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/3 "2002-05-11T00:34:55Z")
Alone and unloved. ---
**Author:** ![Tinkertoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f19dbf/32.png) [@Tinkertoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinkertoy)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/4 "2002-05-11T00:38:22Z")
Another vote for drowning. I won’t even go swimming if I can’t see the bottom. ---
**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 11, 2002, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/5 "2002-05-11T00:42:04Z")
Dammit. **Reeder** beat me to it. Though I was going to say, “Alone. Knowing you’ve never experienced the love other people take for granted.” ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/6 "2002-05-11T00:42:54Z")
yeah but what about the chinese torture of a thousand cuts? I’d rather be alone and unloved that sliced to ribbons with a razor blade and left to bleed to death. I think ---
**Author:** ![cbtcad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/46a35a/32.png) [@cbtcad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbtcad)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/7 "2002-05-11T01:08:54Z")
I think that burning to death would be the worst way. Just think of the pain of the burn and then you add the natural fear most people have of being burned and that makes it even worse. (a side note: the quote is from “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost.) ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/8 "2002-05-11T01:10:34Z")
I think being read to from a Robert Frost book WHILE being burned would be awful 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Lao](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Dr.Lao](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Lao)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/9 "2002-05-11T01:11:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jarbabyj \* > **yeah but what about the chinese torture of a thousand cuts? I’d rather be alone and unloved that sliced to ribbons with a razor blade and left to bleed to death.** Eh, possibly. I am not overly axious to test this particular theory. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Hand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mr.Hand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Hand)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/10 "2002-05-11T01:11:24Z")
How about being executed for a brutal rape-murder of a child that you did not commit, but that everyone believes that you have? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/11 "2002-05-11T01:13:37Z")
Being eaten alive by some ferocious animal like Kyle McLachlan did in in that “Tales From the Crypt” episode, or Griffin Dunne in _An American Werewolf in London_. Falling from a great height. Being drawn and quartered. ---
**Author:** ![KW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/35a633/32.png) [@KW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KW)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/12 "2002-05-11T01:15:30Z")
Julius Caesar, when asked what the best death would be, said “A quick one”. So…the worst death would be a really slow one. I vote for protracted death after extensive third degree burns, or with peritonitis. Both horrifically painful. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/13 "2002-05-11T01:22:46Z")
I watched my mother and mother-in-law both die long drawn out deaths from cancer. For my mother, it was 4 years of hell. Got me to quit smoking and watch what I’m eating. Definitly not the way I want to die. ---
**Author:** ![Jojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecd19e/32.png) [@Jojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jojo)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/14 "2002-05-11T02:16:19Z")
Lying down on your back in the desert. Spreadeagled, naked and tied to posts while ants nibble at your testicles. ---
**Author:** ![LolaBaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@LolaBaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaBaby)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/15 "2002-05-11T02:29:31Z")
Drowning, burning to death, being buried alive. ---
**Author:** ![Neptune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@Neptune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neptune)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/16 "2002-05-11T02:30:47Z")
Room 101 ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/17 "2002-05-11T02:32:49Z")
The worst way is for your death to betray something you believe in. It could be something simple, like that pedestrian/bicycle safety advocate who got hit by a bus and killed. ---
**Author:** ![eunoia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eunoia/32/97_2.png) [@eunoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eunoia)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/18 "2002-05-11T02:48:23Z")
I’ve thought about this. During a spacewalk which is humanity’s last chance to secure a cargo of nuclear waste that is in danger of falling back to Earth and causing massive human casualties, you make a really stupid mistake that kills all your astronaut buddies and simultaneously sends you adrift into space. You smack your hand to your forehead and accidentally crack your helmet’s visor and begin to very slowly depressurize. “This is the kind of thinking that kept me out of the better schools” - George Carlin ---
**Author:** ![Skijumper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3e96dc/32.png) [@Skijumper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skijumper)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/19 "2002-05-11T03:02:31Z")
Decapitation. My greatest fear. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/20 "2002-05-11T03:19:12Z")
Getting crushed under some massive weight, as in a building collapse. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403.md?page=2)