Nikki Bacharach, the daughter of Burt Bacharach and Angie Dickenson, has committed suicide. She had a form of autism, that apparently had left her very depressed. The statement from the family was that she “peacefully committed suicide to escape the ravages” of the disease.
The method utilized was that promoted by Derek Humphry, author of the how-to-commit suicide book Final Exit, and his fellow ilk of suicide zealots—suffication by helium and a plastic bag. I don’t know if this is true, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she had “assistance,” since some euthanasia groups offer surreptitious suicide assistance and certainly have no interest, other than political appearances, of limiting “final exits” to the terminally ill. Our sympathies to her parents and our concern about a society that is beginning to extol the “choice” of suicide over its prevention.
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