The daughter of a woman from Ireland was shocked and grieved to learn of her mother’s death by assisted suicide on July 8 through a message delivered through WhatsApp.
Key Takeaways:
- A 58-year-old Irish woman traveled to Switzerland for assisted suicide without her family’s knowledge.
- Her daughter and partner were later notified through WhatsApp that she had died and that her ashes had been mailed to them.
- The association that was paid to assist in her suicide claims it communicated with her family prior to her death, but the family says it did not receive any such communication. The woman’s brother has asked for an investigation into the matter.
- The families of others who sought assisted suicide through the same group have experienced similar issues regarding a lack of communication about their loved ones’ deaths.
The Details:
According to The Sun, Maureen Slough, a 58-year-old woman from County Cavin, Ireland, had told her family that she would be traveling with a friend to Lithuania. Instead, she made the journey to the Pegasos Association Switzerland where she chose to die by assisted suicide, paying the association €15,000, which equates to just over $17,000 USD.
Slough’s daughter Megan Royal said the family was unaware of her mother’s plans to end her life.
Royal knew her mother had been struggling with mental health issues and had sadly attempted to take her own life a year prior due to grief after the deaths of “two sisters” (though it is unclear from media reports if the sisters were Slough’s or Royal’s).
Royal told the Irish Independent she and her mother’s partner, Mick Lynch, “received a heartbreaking WhatsApp message, which allegedly said her mum had died listening to gospel music sung by Elvis Presley.”
Lynch told the Independent, “I was actually talking to [Slough] that morning and she was full of life. She said she was after having her breakfast and she was going out to sit in the sun. Maybe she was heading off to that place. I still thought she was coming home.”
The Pegasos Association has claimed it received a letter from Royal in which she confirmed she knew of her mother’s wishes to die, and although she was saddened by it she had accepted it. Pegasos further claimed the letter was verified through email. But Royal denies this and believes her mother may have forged the letter and created a false email for verification.
According to the Independent:
In addition to the startlingly inappropriate way her mother’s death was both revealed and handled, the family was informed that Slough’s ashes would be delivered to them by mail.
The Bottom Line:
Slough’s family is not alone in suffering the loss of a loved one through the Pegasos Association’s practices.
In 2003, Alistair Hamilton, a 47-year-old teacher from London, died at Pegasos without his family’s knowledge; the group claimed it had informed his family. Likewise, in 2025, 51-year-old grieving mother Anne Canning also ended her life through the Pegasos clinic, which claimed it had attempted to reach her family; Canning’s family had no knowledge of this.
Pegasos’ website states, “Pegasos, a non-profit based in Basel, Switzerland, believes that it is the human right of every rational adult of sound mind, regardless of state of health, to choose the manner and timing of their death.”
Swiss Law has supported assisted suicide since 1942.
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