No, I don't think that.
They released the photograph, and a 22 minute video, to warn people about the dangers of drug abuse, as quoted in a BBC article
Link
"Over the next two years, Rachel's parents campaigned against drugs to try to save other lives.
In March 2002, a 22-minute video called Rachel's Story was shown to hundreds of teenage school pupils, and a photograph of her body was released by her mother Pauline Holcroft."
The fact that some sleaze-bags abused their gesture does not, imho, make them foolhardy - it just makes the political party involved ****-sucking rabble-rousing oxygen thieves (again, imho).
Unfortunately, the idiots who abused this family's trust will just have discouraged anyone else doing the same thing in the future (imho).