Word: painless
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Socrates was lucky. Found guilty of heresy and "corruption of the young," he was condemned to drink a cup of hemlock, a relatively honorable and painless death. By the standards of history, his execution in 399 B.C. was singularly humane...
...often mix badly. The faith of some recently established congregations in rural Thailand tends to waver if prayers go unanswered. At the Ban Ti Christian Church north of Lamphun, a large blackboard hangs on the wall behind the pulpit. Prayers for rain, a speedy harvest and painless cures for various maladies are recorded every Sunday, then checked off the following week against the results...
...other issue in the Brooks fiasco--the questions raised by death by injection--itself will surely prove the starting point for a long debate. One problem is that the method has simply not been adequately tested. Thought to be quick and painless, the injection technique could also cause a bloodbath. As one doctor explained: "Sometimes it's tough as hell to find a vein. If you miss, the pain can be excruciating. And besides, even if you do get the vein, no one is really sure the convict doesn't suffer for a few minutes while the drug is being...
Lasers have been used to cut cloth, cauterize ulcers, measure air pollution and guide bombs. Now comes a new wrinkle: laser beams for facelifts. A painless, nonsurgical laser-beam therapy, said to improve facial muscle tone, was developed in the Soviet Union, popularized in Europe, and is currently winning a large following in California and Florida. "It's like taking your face to the gym," says one satisfied customer. But according to the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, it is more like being taken to the cleaners...
...specialist Jean Pierre Soubrier estimates that nine out of 10 people trying to commit suicide don't really want to succeed. The prevalence of "suicidal fantasies" which never come to completion is also common knowledge. Both syndromes, of course, could be radically and tragically altered by access to 50 painless "cocktails" guaranteeing a gentle death...