Autoerotic asphyxiation
Autoerotic asphyxiation, or
AEA, is the practice of self-
strangulation, typically by the use of a
ligature, while
masturbating in order to heighten the sexual pleasure as more
endorphines are produced when the body reaches the near state of
asphyxia. While highly pleasurable, AEA is also an extremely dangerous practice that results in many accidental deaths each year. A small number of people doing AEA use a plastic bag over their head, but most prefer the strangulation method.
Historically, the practice of autoerotic asphyxiation has been documented since the early 1600's. It was first used as a treatment for
erectile dysfunction and impotency. The idea for this most likely came from subjects who were executed by
hanging. Observers at public hangings noted male victims developed an
erection (priapism) and occasionally
ejaculated when being hanged. Notably, however, ejaculation occurs in hanging victims after death because of disseminated muscle relaxation; this is a different mechanism from that sought by AEA practitioners.
Deaths often occur when the loss of consciousness caused by partial asphyxia leads to loss of control over the means of strangulation, resulting in continued asphyxia and death. Victims are often found to have rigged some sort of "rescue mechanism" which has not worked in the way they anticipated as they lost consciousness.
It has also been speculated that in some cases autoerotic asphyxiation may have triggered the little-known phenomenon of
carotid sinus reflex death.
It is a popular subject in
tabloids and celebrity gossip magazines, particularly when a celebrity dies as a result of
suicide or other mysterious circumstances. Such was reputedly the case with the deaths of
Michael Hutchence (in 1997) and Japanese rock-star
Hide (in 1998), though no evidence to support the claim was produced in any of those cases.
The artist
Vaughn Bodé died from this cause in 1975.
The death in 1994 of
Stephen Milligan, the British Conservative MP for Eastleigh, was a case of auto-erotic asphyxiation combined with
self-bondage.
AEA claims the lives of between 250 and 1,000 young American men each year . The participants are most often white, middle class males under the age of 30 with no outstanding history of mental illness .
A more recent case is the death in 2004
National Front member
Kristian Etchells. [
1][
2]
Recent court cases have come to varied results as to whether the unintentional death resulting from autoerotic asphyxiation falls under the "self-induced injury" clause of standard
life insurance policies, which prevents payouts for suicide. In June of 2003, one US court said the intent was not death and therefore the case was an accident [
3], while another in August 2003 said it does technically fall within the terms since death is the logical result of asphyxiation [
4].
Autoerotic asphyxiation is key to the plots of many books, movies, and TV shows. Included is an accidental death in the film
The Ruling Class (1972), starring
Peter O'Toole, as well as the movies
Ken Park (with a controversially non-simulated masturbation scene) [
5] and
Full Frontal, the
Thomas Harris novel
Hannibal, the
P. D. James novel
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, the
Erika Barr book
Acquisition of Power (ISBN 1591293073), a 2002 episode of the HBO television series
Six Feet Under, the US version of
Queer as Folk, a 2005 episode of the CBS television series
, an episode of the
League of Gentlemen and is mentioned and talked about in the 2005
George Carlin HBO Special
Life is Worth Losing. In the movie "Life As A House" the main character Sam (Hayden Christensen) is depicted indulging in autoerotic asphyxiation in the first few scenes. In the
X-Files episode "
Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" (first aired Friday, October 13, 1995), the psychic Bruckman (played by
Peter Boyle, who won an Outstanding Guest Actor
Emmy for the part) implies that Special Agent
Fox Mulder will die of AEA. In December of 2005,
Dane Cook who hosted
Saturday Night Live, played a character whose wife told his loved ones that he had died of AEA instead of being in a coma.
It is also mentioned in the UK Channel 4 TV show "
Peep Show", when Jez says "I'm so bored, dangerously bored, I even considered doing that thing that Michael Hutchence and that MP did".
*
BBC News story about the death of Stephen Milligan*
Information on the practice of autoerotic asphyxia*
Well Hung: Death By Orgasm 
