[Jay W]

why are people so interested in these sort of things? And why do people have to believe in so many romantic or exciting notions, when real life is, by definition, boring 99% of the time?Oh sorry, this is an answer, not a question.The theory goes that in space, your blood will boil because the pressure is so low. Everyone knows fluids boil at a lower temperature as the pressure goes down, so a zero pressure, many people assume blood will boil. In reality, it will not because the blood will be inside your body, and your body will retain some pressure, and blood is so thick with proteins, it will act like antifreeze in your radiator and keep it from boiling, What will happen, however, is that the sudden decrease in pressure will cause any dissolved gases in your blood to come out of solution creating little bubbles that will cause the bends or decompression sickness (like with deep sea divers). This is a terribly, terribly painful way to die.Another theory is that with zero pressure in space, the internal pressure in your body will make your body explode into little smithereens (see the movie"Outlander"). Again, in reality, there is not enough pressure to"explode"the body--however, it will become bloated or extremely puffy, which, again, would be extremely painful.Some people think drowning is euphoric, because some people drown with a calm expression on their face. In reality, the transition from having air in your lungs to having water in your lungs is extremely painful, distressing, and terrifying, even if you are prepared for it, and people struggle violently. There are stories of people who had torn their fingernails off struggling with their seat belts and clawing at the door in cars under water. Once water has completely filled your lungs, the pain and distress stops, and you have a couple seconds before you lose consciousness, which is why people look calm--because for a brief moment, the pain and distress goes away. Overall, however, NOT a pleasant way to die.Being electrocuted is perhaps one of the most painful ways to go. In theory, it stops the heart and kills instantly. In reality, it tends to cause multiple bone fractures from involuntary muscle contractions. As you can imagine, this is quite painful.While it _is_ possible for a fall to trigger a heart attack, you would be hard-pressed to argue that was the cause of death in a fall. Even people who have massive heart attacks remain conscious for as long as 5-10 seconds afterwards, because the heart attack only stops the flow of blood to the brain, and you can survive for as long as 5-10 minutes--it doesn't kill you instantly. Of course, you can fall a LONG way in 5-10 seconds, and people would most likely find the ground before they died from their heart attack.There is no way to prove or disprove that death is the result of"losing the will to live."It is well known that frequently in the elderly, one spouse will die soon after another. In addition, there are many stories of terminal or comatose patients dying after a significant moment (a birthday, a visit from a loved one, etc.). However, these stories prove or disprove nothing, and are safe to speculate freely about.