Death erection
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2008-06-23T21:05:18Z
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gen fixes + format *date= in cite templates - full explanation [[User:Rjwilmsi#My_correction_of_dates_in_templates|here]] using [[Project:AutoWikiBrowser|AWB]]
A '''death erection''' or '''terminal erection'''<ref>{{cite book
|url=http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0876303297&id=WCqMzcAka54C&pg=PA167&lpg=PA167&dq=priapism+hanging+date:1950-2007&sig=wfJeQbB-C83qW0mx0OT9QCxzL4Q
|title=The Evaluation of Sexual Disorders: Psychological and Medical Aspects
|author=Helen Singer Kaplan & Melvin Horwith
|year=1983
|publisher=Brunner Routledge
|location=United Kingdom
|accessdate=2007-01-26}} "Men subjected to capital punishment by hanging and laboratory animals sacrificed with cervical dislocation have terminal erections. The implication is that either central inhibition of erection is released and erection created or that a sudden massive spinal cord stimulus generates an erectile response. There is ample experimental and clinical evidence to support the former supposition."</ref> is a post-mortem [[erection]], technically a [[priapism]], observed in the corpses of human males who have been [[execution|executed]], particularly by [[hanging]].<ref name="Grube">{{cite book
|url=http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC02395549&id=2fQSJLwOgy0C&pg=RA3-PA455&lpg=RA3-PA455&dq=priapism+hanging
|title=A Compendium of practical medicine for the use of students and practitioners of medicine
|author=Willis Webster Grube
|year=1897
|publisher=Hadley Co.
|accessdate=2007-01-26}} "Erection has long been observed to follow injuries to the cerebellum and spinal cord. Out of eleven cases of cerebellar hemorrhage, erection of the penis was noted six times by Serres. Death by hanging is often accompanied by partial erection."</ref>
==Overview==
The phenomenon has been attributed to pressure on the [[cerebellum]] created by the noose.<ref>{{cite book
|url=http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC29165096&id=VeoIAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA5-PA683&lpg=RA5-PA683&dq=priapism+hanging
|title=Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine
|author=George M. Gould and Walter L. Pyle
|year=1900
|publisher=
|accessdate=2007-01-26}} "Priapism is sometimes seen as a curious symptom of lesion of the spinal cord. In such cases it is totally unconnected with any voluptuous sensation, and is only found accompanied by motor paralysis. It may occur spontaneously immediately after accident involving the cord, and is then probably due to undue excitement of the portion of the cord below the lesion, which is deprived of the regulating influence of the brain... Pressure on the cerebellum is supposed to account for cases of priapism observed in executions and suicides by hanging. There is an instance recorded of an Italian ''castrata'' who said he provoked sexual pleasure by partially hanging himself."</ref> Spinal cord injuries are known to be associated with priapism.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.emedicine.com/EMERG/topic331.htm
|title=Neck trauma
|author=David Levy, DO
|publisher=eMedicine.com
|accessdate=2007-01-26}}</ref> Injuries to the cerebellum or [[spinal cord]] are often associated with priapism in living patients.<ref name="Grube"/>
Death by hanging, whether an execution or a [[suicide]], has been observed to affect the genitals of both men and women.
In women, the labia will become engorged and there may be a discharge of blood from the vagina. In men, "a more or less complete state of erection of the penis, with discharge of urine, of mucus, or of the prostatic fluid, is a frequent occurrence ... present in one case in three." Other causes of death may also result in these effects, including fatal gunshot wounds to the brain, major blood vessels, or violent death by poisoning, and forensically, a postmortem priapism is an indicator that death was likely swift and violent.<ref>{{cite book
|url=http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC36308102&id=n0YJAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA3-PA246&lpg=RA3-PA246&dq=priapism+hanging#PRA3-PA245,M1
|title=Principles of Forensic Medicine
|author=William Augustus Guy
|date=1861
|publisher=Henry Renshaw
|city=London
|accessdate=2007-01-26}}</ref>
==Cultural references==
*[[Samuel Beckett]]'s ''[[Waiting for Godot]]'' includes a passage in Act I:
::Estragon: What about hanging ourselves?
::Vladimir: Hmm. It'd give us an erection.
::Estragon: (highly excited). An erection!
::Vladimir: With all that follows. Where it falls [[mandrake (plant)|mandrake]]s grow. That's why they shriek when you pull them up. Did you not know that?
::Estragon: Let's hang ourselves immediately!<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://samuel-beckett.net/Waiting_for_Godot_Part1.html
|title=Waiting for Godot, Part I
|author=Samuel Beckett
|accessdate=2007-01-26}}</ref>
*The 2003 [[Channel 4]] documentary on the [[Jack Sheppard]] case, ''The Georgian Underworld, Part 4: Invitation to a Hanging'' noted that his hanging caused an erection.<ref>{{cite news
|url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20030425/ai_n12683349
|author=Thomas Sutcliffe
|title=Lock, Stock and Two Yards of Hemp
|publisher=[[The Independent]]
|date=2003-04-25
|accessdate=2007-01-26}}</ref>
*The "Cyclops" section of [[James Joyce]]'s ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]'' makes multiple use of the terminal erection as a [[Motif (literature)|motif]].<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20061118053709/http://www.eleves.ens.fr/home/tholonia/joyce.html
|title=Joyce's Cyclops
|author=Yann Tholoniat
|accessdate=2007-01-26}} Tholoniat is a Senior Lecturer at the [[Marc Bloch University]].</ref>
*The [[Michael Moore]] documentary ''[[Fahrenheit 9/11]]'' includes found footage of [[United States]] troops "jocularly prodding the post-mortem erection of a fallen Iraqi".<ref>{{cite news
|url=http://www.styleweekly.com/article.asp?idarticle=8648
|title=Burning Down the House
|author=Thomas Peyser
|date=[[June 30]] [[2004]]
|accessdate=2007-01-26}}</ref>
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*In ''[[The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]'', [[Edward Gibbon]] relates an anecdote attributed to [[Abu al-Fida|Abulfeda]] that [[Ali]], on the death of [[Mohammed]], exclaimed, ''O propheta, certe penis tuus cælum versus erectus est'' (O prophet, thy penis is erect unto the sky).<ref>{{cite book
|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20070417133412/http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/HTML.php?recordID=0214.09
|title=The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
|author=Edward Gibbon
|accessdate=2007-01-26}}</ref>
* At the end of [[Herman Melville]]'s short novel ''[[Billy Budd (novella)|Billy Budd]]'', Billy's unusual moral purity is suggested by the fact that, contrary to the general rule, he does not get an erection after being hanged. On the other hand, in [[Thomas Pynchon]]'s novel ''[[Mason & Dixon]]'', [[Charles Mason]] says to himself that "In my experience, 'tis usually the Innocent who get [terminal erections], and the Guilty who fail to."
* In [[Boris Vian]]'s 1946 novel ''J'irai cracher sur vos tombes (I Shall Spit on Your Graves)'', the final sentence mentions a lynching victim's "ridiculous" erection.
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==References==
{{reflist}}
==See also==
*[[Livor mortis]]
*[[John Dillinger#Trivia|John Dillinger]]
[[Category:Human physiology]]
[[Category:Andrology]]
[[Category:Death]]
[[Category:Penis]]
[[Category:Forensics]]
[[de:Postmortale Erektion]]
[[fr:Érection post mortem]]
[[is:Dauðaholdris]]