# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![lenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3bc359/32.png) [@lenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lenin)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/21 "2002-05-11T04:29:09Z")
Vietnamese food. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/22 "2002-05-11T05:09:53Z")
You die crying with sorrow because the person you’ve been talking to on Great Debates for the last month has just demanded another cite proving that gravity exists. ---
**Author:** ![Stinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@Stinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stinky)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/23 "2002-05-11T05:48:15Z")
I want to die neked, screaming and covered in bodily fluids. Just like I started. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/24 "2002-05-11T05:52:13Z")
I think being aboard an airplane that is about to crash would be the most terrible way to go. It would be so sudden when it happened, but yet would be anticipated for several minutes, keeping victims in a terribly fearful state for so long before they are killed. I shudder to think of what it must have been like for the passengers aboard the planes that were crashed on September 11. I’d rate burning while being trapped in a fire as a close second because of the pain involved. Drowning rates third, usually no severe pain, but rather, a loss of consciousness before death. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/25 "2002-05-11T06:24:41Z")
I’d think that being crushed to death would be pretty bad, after burning and suffocating…say, would a botched execution by, or even an accidental, hanging count under “Suffocation,” or can “Strangulation” be a separate category? I would think that dangling by the neck as your windpipe is slowly crushed would be pretty unique. Or perhaps Ebola, or the Plague. Those always sounded painful. As for the BEST ways to die, however, I’ve been told by people who would know that freezing to death, and dying of shock (or, bleeding to death, for the laymen) aren’t especially horrific…you just sort of drift off to sleep. Ranchoth ---
**Author:** ![Alereon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Alereon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alereon)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/26 "2002-05-11T06:26:36Z")
I’d say any death where you have to see your own mangled body before you die. _shudder_ I think I could handle any amount of emotional trauma before I died, like in an airplane crash, as long as the death itself was instant and painless. ---
**Author:** ![Cyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e4f/32.png) [@Cyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyn)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/27 "2002-05-11T07:00:24Z")
I always say choking on your own gum in public would be the worst way to die. Imagine it. And your family, at the funeral. S/he died so young! Was it cancer? A car crash? Gum? ---
**Author:** ![Osbie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/cdc98d/32.png) [@Osbie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Osbie)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/28 "2002-05-11T07:20:38Z")
I’d hate to be trapped in a disabled submarine (which is the same thing as being buried alive, I suppose). I hear crucifixion isn’t too pleasant either… ---
**Author:** ![Dieter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@Dieter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dieter)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/29 "2002-05-11T07:24:38Z")
1. Slow moving steamroller, from the feet up -ala Roger Rabbit. 2. Pinned in a car, no way to get out or move, no one around to save you, Celine Dion CD in the stereo playing on repeat. 3. Death by potato pealer 4. Death by bunga-bunga ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/30 "2002-05-11T07:41:34Z")
I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather… Not screaming like the other people in his car. ---
**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, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/31 "2002-05-11T07:43:20Z")
> [@](#): > > 1. Pinned in a car, no way to get out or move, no one around to save you, Celine Dion CD in the stereo playing on repeat. [Here](http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,52363,00.html) is a recent incident where a man was trapped for _two days_ in an overturned car, too badly hurt to escape. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/32 "2002-05-11T10:53:01Z")
After an aunt of mine had a NDE experience (in which her baby daughter died) by drowning, I’m sort of the opinion that drowning would be a pretty cool way to go. (They were both in a car that went over a bridge into a river FYI). My dear aunt recounted the sensations for all to hear, and it didn’t sound too horrible: quite peaceful in fact! (She eventually succumbed to lung-cancer 15 years later, which was REALLY horrible) I reckon the WORST way though would be in an aeroplane me’self, just like dwc1970 described. The KNOWING that you are about to cease to exist must be the most incredibly fucked feeling. I don’t fear pain, but I do fear FEAR. ---
**Author:** ![Merrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@Merrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merrin)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/33 "2002-05-11T11:25:21Z")
“3,2,1 BUNGEE! Bugger weren’t we supposed to tie a rope somewhere Bruce” It’s not the falling that scares me, it’s the hitting! Merrin ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/34 "2002-05-11T13:35:47Z")
I vote for drowning, although that homeless man who died stuck in the windshield of the car parked in the driver’s garage must have been pretty bad. I don’t know about the pain, but emotionally…here you are, bleeding to death, and there is a person who is aware that you need help and refuses to render aid. ---
**Author:** ![Qwertyasdfg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Qwertyasdfg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwertyasdfg)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/35 "2002-05-11T13:50:55Z")
Impaled while running with scissors. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/36 "2002-05-11T15:38:38Z")
[drebin] Getting caught in the gears of a combine - that’s how I want to go [/drebin] ---
**Author:** ![kitarak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kitarak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitarak)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/37 "2002-05-11T16:03:15Z")
I vote for burning. Not actually dying from being set on fire, but being too badly burned to get help, yet not badly enough to have lost consciousness. ::shudders:: Drowning doesn’t really bother me much. I mean, the being dead part would suck (though I don’t believe in an after life, so I wouldn’t be particularily bothered by it after it happened), but I’m pretty good with things like that. I can quite happily convince myself that I don’t care that I need oxygen and keep going. Granted it eventually gets unbearable, but I’d probably be pretty close to dead by that point anyway. This is a pretty morbid thread, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/38 "2002-05-11T16:44:47Z")
Burning…Theres nothing more painfull, the panic of drowning would be bad, but it would be over reasonably soon. ---
**Author:** ![Azure\_Eternity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f05b48/32.png) [@Azure\_Eternity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azure_Eternity)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/39 "2002-05-11T16:58:43Z")
For me, the worst way to die would be crawling on all fours through a tunnel that is getting smaller and smaller until you get firmly stuck and can’t move in either direction. Then it starts filling with water. ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403/40 "2002-05-11T17:04:08Z")
**For me to go through** it would be months of excruciating pain with little hope of recovery, slowly draining away my family’s financial security with my medical costs. Losing dignity in the end, control over bodily functions & crying looking weak, cursing God and heaven … horrible really. \*\*For me to contemplate \*\* something embarrassing, like dying with a transvestite prostitute in the car (who I happened to give a lift to), or struck by lightening so all my clothes fly off at a nationally televised golf tournament (shrinkage!) or something like that … [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-way-to-die/108403.md?page=3)