Would you not be happy to have the rare genes that were actually immune to HIV? Perhaps Stephen Crohn was, and his suicide at the age of 66 was unrelated. But, from the obituary, it seems as if guilt over surviving when his friends were dying drove him to take his own life last month. Hard to figure this when so many struggle to live.

Here's the story: http://www.latimes.com/obituaries/la-me-stephen-crohn-20130922,0,7435494.story

Rest in peace. I pray that he could meet his friends in his next life.

People always want there to be some single, obvious reason to explain a suicide. However, Crohn had been aware of his situation for many years, and if the only cause for suicide were "survivor's guilt," one would have expected him to kill himself long before now. It may have contributed in some way to his other reasons for ending it all, but there are lots of other things that might might make a single, gay man, approaching his 67th birthday, decide to take his own life, including loneliness and financial problems. The explanation came only from his sister's speculation, and it makes a good headline.