A mother informed her family she was going on a vacation, but instead, she secretly traveled to Switzerland for an assisted suicide.
The family of Maureen Slough, from Cavan, Ireland, is speaking out after the 58-year-old told them she was taking a trip with a friend to Lithuania, but she actually went alone to Switzerland on July 8 with the intention of ending her life.
Maureen’s daughter, Megan Royal, discovered the truth in a heartbreaking manner and felt powerless to intervene.
Once Maureen reached Switzerland, where assisted suicide is legal, Megan received a troubling message from one of her mother’s friends the next day.
“A close friend of hers messaged me on the Wednesday night, possibly at like 10 p.m. I was in bed with the baby,” Megan shared with the Irish Independent. “He just replied like, ‘Your mom’s in Switzerland.’ He’s like, ‘You have a right to know. I was sworn to secrecy. She’s there and she wants assisted suicide.’
“I was so scared in that moment,” Megan added.
The mother of two reached out to her father, who spoke with Maureen and was assured she would return home.
However, the next day, Megan received a notification informing her that Maureen had gone through with her plans—news of receiving her ashes.
“What was worse was not only did I get the text on WhatsApp, they had advised me that her ashes would be posted to me in 6-8 weeks,” she recounted. “In that very moment, because I was alone, I just sat there with the baby and cried… I just felt like my world ended.”
The notification came from Pegasos, an assisted dying nonprofit organization in Liestal, Switzerland. Megan discovered that her mother had secretly applied and paid £15,000 (around $20,000) for the procedure.
According to Dignity in Dying, Switzerland is one of nine European countries that legally allows access to assisted suicide, though some countries like Austria and Portugal have stricter criteria such as terminal illness or chronic conditions for eligibility.
Assisted suicide has been legal in Switzerland since 1942, and unlike some other EU nations, it is available to non-Swiss residents.
However, euthanasia is prohibited, requiring the patient to administer the medication themselves rather than through a physician.
According to Maureen’s family, she struggled with mental health issues and had attempted to end her life before while grieving the loss of her two younger sisters, but they believed she still had a lot of life left to live.
“No one’s saying she wasn’t feeling pain,” Megan stated. “She was just in a dark time. She wasn’t terminally ill or, in my opinion, ill enough to go and do this and leave our family behind like that.
“They [Pegasos] should not have allowed her to make that decision on her own,” Megan added to Right to Life. “This group did not contact me, even though my mother had nominated me as next of kin. They waited until afterwards and then told me she had died listening to an Elvis Presley song.”
The family is questioning Pegasos’s verification process after the organization claimed Maureen had been enduring ‘unbearable chronic pain’ and had a letter and email from Megan indicating her awareness of the plan.
Megan suspects her mother forged the letter and responded to the email in her name.
“It wasn’t even my email. With anything these days, 99 percent of things you settle you get a call to your phone. So why is it not like this when you’re about to lose your life?” she told the outlet.
Philip Slough, Maureen’s uncle and attorney, is urging the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to investigate the circumstances surrounding her death with Swiss authorities.
He criticizes Pegasos for not adhering to their policy of properly notifying family members, stating the ‘circumstances in which my sister took her life are highly questionable.’
UNILAD has contacted Pegasos for comment.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, support is available through Mental Health America. Call or text 988 to reach a 24-hour crisis center or use the webchat at 988lifeline.org. Additionally, the Crisis Text Line can be reached by texting MHA to 741741.