FOX: American actor David Carradine may have died attempting a sex act known as auto-erotic asphyxiation, a Thai forensic scientist said Friday. The 72-year-old actor’s body was discovered Thursday in his luxury suite at Bangkok’s Swissotel Nai Lert Park Hotel. Police Lt. Gen. Worapong Chewprecha told reporters that Carradine was found with a rope “tied around his penis and another rope around his neck…The two ropes were tied together,” he said. “It is unclear whether he committed suicide or not or he died of suffocation or heart failure due to an orgasm.” MORE
WIKIPEDIA: Erotic asphyxiation refers to intentionally cutting off oxygen to the brain for sexual arousal. It is also called asphyxiophilia, autoerotic asphyxia, scarfing, kotzwarraism, or breath control play. Colloquially, a person engaging in the activity is sometimes called a gasper. The erotic interest in asphyxiation is classified as a paraphilia in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. Psychiatrist Joseph Merlino stated that it meets the criteria for a disorder “because it has the potential for lethality or serious injury.”[1]