Lesley Hazleton, a British-born, secular Jewish psychologist turned journalist and author, whose curiosity about faith and religion led her to write biographies of Muhammad, Mary and Jezebel and examine her own passions in books about agnosticism and automobiles, died on April 29 at her home, a houseboat in Seattle. She was 78. Ms. Hazleton announced her death herself, in an email that she scheduled to be sent to friends after she died. She had been diagnosed with terminal kidney cancer and chose to take her own life, as Washington State’s Death with Dignity Act allowed her to do legally, with the assistance of hospice volunteers. “Yes, this is a goodbye letter,” she wrote, “which is difficult for me, because as many of you know, I’m lousy at saying goodbye.”

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Persons: Lesley Hazleton, Muhammad, Mary, Jezebel, “, ” Organizations: Hazleton Locations: British, Seattle, Washington