David Carradine Death Photo, Thai Rath Continue to Spark Heated Debate

The David Carradine death photo/Thai Rath controversy continues to dominate the news. Understandably, the publication of the David Carradine death photo by Thai Rath, a Thai tabloid newspaper, has infuriated the Carradine family, and, as a result, lawyer Mark Garagos has threatened to sue any media outlet that publishes the grisly David Carradine death photo.

The David Carradine death photo controversy started when beloved actor David Carradine was found dead Wednesday in a luxurious Bangkok hotel. A hotel maid found David Carradine's nude body hanging from a clothes bar in the closet of his hotel room.

Initially, Thai police believed that David Carradine had committed suicide. Later, however, they began to suspect that his death may have been the result of an accident.

There is much speculation that David Carradine may have died accidentally while engaging in a form of sex play called auto-erotic asphyxiation. Auto-erotic asphyxiation involves cutting off oxygen supply to the brain in order to achieve a more intense orgasm.

I wrote an article for this site yesterday in which I compared the David Carradine death photo/Thai Rath controversy to the Nikki Catsouras car crash photo story.

Nikki Catsouras was killed in a horrible car accident, and the grisly pictures of her almost-decapitated head were allegedly leaked onto the Internet (where they went viral) by a couple of California Highway Patrol dispatchers.

The Catsouras family, for obvious reasons, has been trying to get laws passed that would prohibit such pictures from being distributed on the Internet.

But some argue that it is a good thing that the David Carradine death photos and Nikki Catsouras car crash photos found their way onto the web.

Consider the thoughts of Tawny, who left the following comment on my article yesterday:

"Here's a thought. If people actually saw what happens when you drive a car at over a 100 mph into a solid object or they saw the results of suffocation sex games, they would be less inclined to do these dangerous things. These types of photos should be shown. Nothing speaks volumes like a horrible death photo. If Nikki Catsouras' friends saw her death photo, I guarantee none of them will ever get into a car and drive it as fast as they can.

But what about the unfathomable pain that the David Carradine death photo and the Nikki Catsouras car crash photos cause to members of their respective families?

What about the dignity of David Carradine and Nikki Catsouras?

Sources:

Thai Rath Publishes Carradien Hanging Photo; Carradine family outraged, Hartley Engel, Associated Content, June 7, 2009

Carradine Hanging Photo Sparks Uproar, Hartley Engel, Associated Content, June 7, 2009