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Awful ways to die

That's an interesting choice:

Burned alive - unimaginably painful (for a short time)

OR

Al alone, pitch black, in the middle of the ocean (not as painful, but torturously long, and terrifying)


You have to pick one.
A documentary about the early years of the U-Boat menace against the British Navy. Policy was to keep going when u-boats were in the area and ships had been sunk. This one sailor was talking about how he recalls a surviving sailor in a life vest yelling taxi as the ship was leaving him very fast. He said the guy kept a sense of humor even though he knew he was going to die.
 
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I listened to the stuck in cave story while driving home the other day. I never really had claustrophobia but that may have changed with that story. I want nothing to do with caves that have tight squeezes.
 
About 12 years ago, one of my best friends developed ALS. Less than a year later, he was dead. Watching him slowly (or quickly, depending on how you look at it) deteriorate from using a cane to a walker to a wheel chair to being bed ridden and being barely able to speak and move his eyes was gut wrenching. At the end, he couldn't do anything but move his eyes. I can't imagine the horror of knowing your body was continuing to shut down, day by day, piece by piece and function by function.
 
About 12 years ago, one of my best friends developed ALS. Less than a year later, he was dead. Watching him slowly (or quickly, depending on how you look at it) deteriorate from using a cane to a walker to a wheel chair to being bed ridden and being barely able to speak and move his eyes was gut wrenching. At the end, he couldn't do anything but move his eyes. I can't imagine the horror of knowing your body was continuing to shut down, day by day, piece by piece and function by function.
I’d go see Dr Smith & Wesson a month or two into the diagnosis.
 
Ever since I saw Creepshow, I’ve thought being buried in the sand with only your head sticking out ala Ted Danson while the high tide starts slowing coming until it overwhelms you and you drown has got to be absolutely terrible.
 
I listened to the stuck in cave story while driving home the other day. I never really had claustrophobia but that may have changed with that story. I want nothing to do with caves that have tight squeezes.
When I was a toddler, my mother would get either a local teen girl or let my older brothers babysit me. They started getting a kick out of throwing me in a closet and locking it up. I have no idea how many times it happened but it happened several times. I have had terrible claustrophobia throughout my life due to this.
 
Any type of death that involves claustrophobia, being buried alive, stuck in a cave, mine or building collapse. Not being able to move while waiting for the inevitable makes anything like burning to death, drowning, eaten by a wild animal seem quick, merciful and kind.
 
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Eaten alive, particularly in water because of drowning being an option too would be awful.

Also, Paul Walker has to be one of worst celebrity deaths ever.

All of the above said, I think terminal illness is the worst. I lost my grandmother to Pancreatitis....she was in ICU for the better part of 2 years. Moms best friend died of AIDS as well.
 
Fascinating posts so good job by all. My perspective (and not counting illnesses as to me that's a separate category):
  • The worst way to die would be long duration of knowing your doomed with extreme pain.
    • The cave thing comes to mind here. The guy was in pain - maybe not super severe - but he was upside down and aware he was in deep shit for at least 24 hours.
    • I think only torture for months and then being murdered like the Israeli-American hostages would be worse, but I’m focusing on accidents / natural events.
  • Second worst would be just knowing for a long time that you are doomed, but not being too sure exactly when it is going to happen.
    • Getting left alone in the middle of the ocean comes to mind here.
  • Third Worst: Severe pain during relatively quick death.
    • Getting caught feet first in a wood chipper would probably be the worst of this path.
 
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Alzheimer's would have to be a horrible way to go. Both for the patient and loved ones. Slowly slipping away.
Positive thing is the mental aspect of the person with it is gone, so it doesn’t effect them personally as much as it does family. My dad had dementia and passed a couple years ago. He was happy as a clam most of the time.

As @JDHoss said, ALS has got to be the worst for the person that has it. More than any other disease imo.

Both severely suck, but ALS impacts the individual more than Alzheimer’s imo.
 
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My understanding is that ALS doesn’t hurt. Only positive thing I can think of regarding that terrible illness.

I knew a gal whose young daughter had brain cancer and it caused tremendous pain. They would have to let her cry because there was nothing they could do at times. What that poor woman went through makes me count my blessings.
 
My understanding is that ALS doesn’t hurt. Only positive thing I can think of regarding that terrible illness.

I knew a gal whose young daughter had brain cancer and it caused tremendous pain. They would have to let her cry because there was nothing they could do at times. What that poor woman went through makes me count my blessings.
I had a coworker whose 9 year old son died with brain cancer. He said his pain was excruciating at times, and yes, my friend said that he experienced no physical pain with ALS. Only the mental anguish of losing his body functions, even his ability to cough or clear his throat in the final days. That, and the burden and sadness of his wife and three kids who were either just out of college or just starting. Some of us from work, led by a coworker who should have probably done this sort of thing for a living, remodeled their downstairs bathroom to include a large shower with a ramp. Gary got maybe a couple of months use of that.
 
How about the poor bastards who had to choose between burning to death or jumping to their death from the WTC on 9/11. Choose your death, worse or worse.
I've thought about that and that's a horrendous way to go. I'd still would've jumped.

But the 9/11 stuff, the feeling that I fear are those few seconds where you see your plane is headed toward a building and you know it's over.
 
I listened to the stuck in cave story while driving home the other day. I never really had claustrophobia but that may have changed with that story. I want nothing to do with caves that have tight squeezes.
I don't have anxiety or panic attacks. But listening to that cave one, I couldn't finish it, I was starting to not feel well (quickly).
 
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Fast not slow if I got to pick. Probably would think different if confronted with it. The cave one is definitely scary as hell.
 
Swallowed by a python is pretty quick per my understanding. 1) Snake bites you. 2) Instantly squeezes you so hard your heart stops (or at the least pass out), and 3) Then swallows you. After step 2 you're out of it so you won't really know you're being swallowed.
 
Swallowed by a python is pretty quick per my understanding. 1) Snake bites you. 2) Instantly squeezes you so hard your heart stops (or at the least pass out), and 3) Then swallows you. After step 2 you're out of it so you won't really know you're being swallowed.
Crocodile, shark, or bear would probably be more painful and a lot worse IMO.
 
I had a coworker whose 9 year old son died with brain cancer. He said his pain was excruciating at times, and yes, my friend said that he experienced no physical pain with ALS. Only the mental anguish of losing his body functions, even his ability to cough or clear his throat in the final days. That, and the burden and sadness of his wife and three kids who were either just out of college or just starting. Some of us from work, led by a coworker who should have probably done this sort of thing for a living, remodeled their downstairs bathroom to include a large shower with a ramp. Gary got maybe a couple of months use of that.
If you get a chance, check out this documentary about an American man and his wife who travel to Switzerland so he can end his life before ALS completely takes over his body.

https://www.pbs.org/video/frontline-the-suicide-tourist/
 
In a civilized society, EVERYONE should be able to make this decision, and shouldn't have to go abroad to do it.

Slippery slope. In Canada and some European countries you can off yourself if you are depressed.
 
Slippery slope. In Canada and some European countries you can off yourself if you are depressed.
Slippery slope? Seriously? What do you think happens to people who suffer from depression and won't seek help or get help and it doesn't work out do? Would you rather they had an option to go out peacefully, or would you rather them take their own life and be found by a loved one or stranger with their brains splattered out over the wall, floor or even on the roof of their garage, hanging by the neck in their garage, in the woods with their dog howling and head nearly blown off where they put a shotgun under their chin and were found by their wife and two kids, or shooting themselves in the head in front of their wife, 4 year old kid and in-laws....or even worse, decide to take someone else or other people with them?
 
Slippery slope? Seriously? What do you think happens to people who suffer from depression and won't seek help or get help and it doesn't work out do? Would you rather they had an option to go out peacefully, or would you rather them take their own life and be found by a loved one or stranger with their brains splattered out over the wall, floor or even on the roof of their garage, hanging by the neck in their garage, in the woods with their dog howling and head nearly blown off where they put a shotgun under their chin and were found by their wife and two kids, or shooting themselves in the head in front of their wife, 4 year old kid and in-laws....or even worse, decide to take someone else or other people with them?
So be it.
 
Unrestricted euthanasia, full term and post birth abortion, child genital mutilations and puberty blockers, a Ministry of Truth, ...

Are we talking about the pRoGrEsSiVe Utopia or the Third Reich?

Maybe pump the brakes and put a little more thought into plans for civilization?
 
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So be it.
So be it? Those things that I described all happened to people I either knew pretty well, or casually. I didn't even include my in-law's neighbor back in the early 80's who went out on the patio, called out to his wife who was picking tomatoes in their garden, told her goodbye, then blew his brains out. He was terminally ill with cancer. Wouldn't it have been better if he had the option to go peacefully and painlessly, maybe as his wife held his hand, instead of doing that and having her replaying that sequence over and over in her head? Another friend found her dad lying on his bed with his brains scattered all over the wall after he found out his cancer was back and his doctor wanted him to start chemo again. He was in his early 70's and lived alone. She couldn't reach him on his phone, so she drove out in the boondocks about 45 minutes away after dark to check on him, only to find him like that. Maybe if he had the option to go out peacefully, his daughter would have been spared the shock, heartache and memory of seeing him like that.
 
Unrestricted euthanasia, full term and post birth abortion, child genital mutilations and puberty blockers, a Ministry of Truth, ...

Are we talking about the pRoGrEsSiVe Utopia or the Third Reich?

Maybe pump the brakes and put a little more thought into plans for civilization?
There's no such thing as post birth abortion. Unrestricted euthanasia? Who are we to force people who want to end their life to keep living? Child genital mutilations? You mean like circumcision, or are you parroting some insane ramblings you've heard on some conspiracy theory podcast?
 
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There's no such thing as post birth abortion. Unrestricted euthanasia? Who are we to force people who want to end their life to keep living? Child genital mutilations? You mean like circumcision, or are you parroting some insane ramblings you've heard on some conspiracy theory podcast?
You really are ignorant.
 
So be it? Those things that I described all happened to people I either knew pretty well, or casually. I didn't even include my in-law's neighbor back in the early 80's who went out on the patio, called out to his wife who was picking tomatoes in their garden, told her goodbye, then blew his brains out. He was terminally ill with cancer. Wouldn't it have been better if he had the option to go peacefully and painlessly, maybe as his wife held his hand, instead of doing that and having her replaying that sequence over and over in her head? Another friend found her dad lying on his bed with his brains scattered all over the wall after he found out his cancer was back and his doctor wanted him to start chemo again. He was in his early 70's and lived alone. She couldn't reach him on his phone, so she drove out in the boondocks about 45 minutes away after dark to check on him, only to find him like that. Maybe if he had the option to go out peacefully, his daughter would have been spared the shock, heartache and memory of seeing him like that.
Would argue there are better ways to kill yourself than blowing your brains out.
 
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