I had this idea a long time ago and I am still curious what would happen. I got the idea when reading Edgar Allen Poe's The Pit and The Pendulum.
Replace the slow moving Pendulum with an even slower serrated wire. The wire would move back and forth fast enough to cut through flesh, but move down excruciatingly slow. Taking months, or eve years. Moving so slowly that as the wire moved down into the body the flesh above would heal, and the skin would grow aground the wire trapping it in the body.
Assuming this cut would be made in the abdomen, this would of course create problems once the stomach was lacerated. Hydrochloric acid would leak out of the stomach into the peritoneum cavity. That could cause enough damage to kill the subject. If that was successful without mortal damage, eventually the spinal cord would be severed, paralyzing the person from that point down. I wonder if the wire could make it all the way out the other side while they were stil alive.
This could also be tried on a less vital part of the body like mid shin. Would probably take less time, and worst case senario they cant feel their foot anymore but the bones would likely be able to heal.
