I am writing a story in which one character will kill another character by inducing a life-taking disease like cancer so that it will not be shown as a murder to anyone and it will be a slow death. I know fewer of poisons like toadstool extract etc. Is it really possible in real life to induce a disease?
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$\begingroup$ Please edit the question to limit it to a specific problem with enough detail to identify an adequate answer. $\endgroup$– Community BotOct 22, 2022 at 9:04
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2$\begingroup$ Best to make something up. What if you use something real and then your story gives some malefactor an idea about how to kill his landlord, who was not a bad guy? What if you are that malefactor and an enthusiastic worldbuilder gives you that idea? Related reading: worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/166951/… $\endgroup$– WillkOct 22, 2022 at 12:35
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5 Answers
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Easy
You take some of the microbes that make up the disease. Careful not to get any on yourself! You can grow them in a petri dish:
Then apply the microbes to the person. If it is an airborne disease then dissolve the petri-goo in water and spray it into the victim's face. This is an artificial version of a sick person coughing in your face. If it is foodborne disease then spike the victim's chocolate with the goo. If it is a bloodborne disease then you can use a needle and syringe, or apply it to an existing wound.
The hard parts are (a) not infecting yourself and (b) them not noticing. There is also (c) If the disease is rare they will suspect foul play.
Note: This will not work with cancer, arthritis, MS, allergies, or the other illnesses that are not spread by microbes.
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1$\begingroup$ Funny enough, while not guaranteed, you CAN cause cancer indirectly on the target through a disease. Certain viruses, such as HPV, can result in infections that result in changes and damages to cells, damages which, in certain cases, can cause them to stop communicating with other cells and multiplying rapidly, turning into cancer cells. Again, the main """issue""" here is that (thankfully) such viral infections aren't guaranteed to result in cancers. $\endgroup$ Oct 23, 2022 at 3:31
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1$\begingroup$ @ProjectApex If you are a Tasmanian Devil you can get cancer by rubbing your face on another devil's tumors. $\endgroup$– DaronOct 23, 2022 at 9:23
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Radioactivity has a random effect, but a massive continuous exposure to radioactive events eventually may bring the chance close to 1.
If you are in the future your character might have invented a cheaper and easier isotope separation system. With that system he would extract enough radioactive potassium $^{40}$K to kill a man. All he would have to do use that potassium to fertilise a banana tree and find a way to feed the bananas he grows to the victim.
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You can't induce cancer in a single individual but you can induce other illnesses
Cancer is produced randomly, so without being very obvious by say giving someone a massive dose of radiation, you can't reliably produce it in a single individual, you can only increase the chances of that person getting it. You can produce lots of other sicknesses with arsenic or thallium or atropine or aconitine or digitalis if you dose them carefully.
Doctors may spot it
A lot of serial killers thought the same way you do, and used poison since it's harder to track. If you get an incompetent doctor or pathologist checking the corpse you may be fine, a more on the ball one may spot it.
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$\begingroup$ It depends on the time you have to do it. Hide an x-ray emitter above their bed, pointing down. 10 rem/day won't produce obvious symptoms but eventually (years) it will give them cancer. Remove it when they're diagnosed so it's not there to be found if anyone gets to wondering. $\endgroup$ Oct 24, 2022 at 3:26
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Absolutely!
There are endless ways to give someone a disease. This is how disease spreads, after all. Similarly, poison is time-honored and can mimic various diseases. I’ll concentrate on the example of cancer, since you mentioned that directly.
There are viruses that can cause cancer. But they won’t do so consistently. Same issue with carcinogens. To cause someone to get cancer and make it perfectly plausible, you need an identical twin with cancer. Barring that, there are more complicated alternatives that could work.
Tasmanian devils experienced a severe genetic bottleneck in the recent past. Today, they are being wiped out by a cancer spread through bites. A few cancer cells transfer in a bite and the new host is so close genetically that they don’t recognize it as foreign.
If someone has an identical twin with cancer (leukemia would be easiest), that cancer could readily be transferred by a fairly small transfer of blood. Extracted cancer cells grown in culture would work just as well. Since the first twin already HAD cancer, and the cancer matches the second twin, it would be virtually undetectable.
Next best is a cancer that is HLA matched to the victim. Like an organ transplant, the close similarity makes an immune response significantly less likely.
Finally, The victim’s cells could be transferred with oncogenes via a delivery system like viruses or the like. This would be easier, but with less guaranteed effects.
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-Place quantities of asbestos powder in close proximity to the individual and have them develop mesothelioma. Wait time: 40 odd years.
-Infect the individual with AIDS, whether through sexual contact, or by poking them with an infected thumbtack or needle as you pass by them in a crowd. Wait time: 11 years(on average)
-Introduce them to an animal infected with the rabies virus, in such a way that it seems merely like an unfortunate accident, such as placing a (large) rabid dog in their backyard. Other fun animal induced diseases are malaria, though its fatality rate is middling, and leprosy, should you find any armadillos nearby and are feeling particularly medieval.
-Gaslight them into insanity or even induced schizophrenia by altering events around (This depends on how powerful the individual is and their ability to influence events around the murder victim), then proceed to either have them do something lethally stupid, commit suicide, or take lethal amounts of drugs or alcohol (The credibility of this is... limited, but would still be darkly amusing to see implemented in a story)
In regard to cancer, if you somehow managed to bombard them with radiation frequently (But not enough to cause noticeable, and well, messy, radiation sickness), they will becomer cancerous.
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$\begingroup$ Rabies, don't worry about a source. It will be assumed to be some unnoticed bite. Just be careful that they don't notice when it happened. $\endgroup$ Oct 24, 2022 at 3:27