Daughter devastated by mother’s secret assisted suicide

A woman in the Republic of Ireland was not informed about her mother’s assisted suicide until receiving a WhatsApp message two days after her death, it has been reported.

Maureen Slough, a 58-year-old from County Cavan, told her family she was going on holiday to Lithuania but she actually visited the Pegasos clinic in Switzerland. She had struggled with mental health and previously tried to commit suicide after the death of her two sisters.

Although Pegasos reported that Maureen’s daughter Megan Royal had confirmed her mother’s intentions, Megan claimed the acknowledgment letter may have been forged.

‘Sinister’

Maureen’s ashes and handwritten “goodbye” letters were later posted to the family.

Writing in the Sunday Independent, columnist David Quinn stated: “It is a sad part of the human condition that nearly all of us will face very significant struggles at various points in our lives. Maureen Slough clearly did, but she had a loving daughter willing to help her.

“If deliberately ending someone’s life in a clinic, be it here or overseas, is all we can offer people in serious need, we have taken a very sinister turn indeed.”

‘Sorry tale’

Nick Park, the Executive Director of Evangelical Alliance Ireland, added: “Advocates for Assisted Suicide talk about dying with dignity, but there is little dignity on display in this sorry tale.

“Ireland has a huge problem with suicide, and a truly compassionate and dignified response would be one that affirms the value of human life.

“Creating a suicide industry may now be legal in some jurisdictions, but such practices cheapen the value of human life, and deny our wonderful identity as human beings made in the image of God.”

MPs in London voted – by 314 to 291 – to introduce assisted suicide for terminally ill adults in England and Wales deemed to have less than six months to live. The proposed legislation will now be debated in the House of Lords where Peers are expected to subject it to rigorous scrutiny.