The leader of Evangelical Alliance Ireland has voiced concern after the daughter of a mentally unwell woman was shocked to receive her mother’s ashes by post from a Swiss suicide clinic alongside a cell phone text message confirming the death.
Maureen Slough, aged 58, from Co Covan, had suffered mental illness and told her family she was visiting the country of Lithuania with a friend, reports The Irish Independent. In fact, she went to the Pegasos clinic in Basel, Switzerland, on July 8 to die with help from the facility.
CARE, a Christian ethics watchdog, reported that Slough’s daughter Megan Royal, next of kin, suddenly and unexpectedly received a WhatsApp message on her phone only two days later from the Swiss clinic. The message informed her that her mom had died while “listening to gospel music sung by Elvis Presley.”
Furthermore, the message said her mother’s cremated ashes were enroute by post to the family home. Handwritten “goodbye” letters written by Slough arrived some time after the ashes were sent.
According to CARE, Slough had “attempted suicide a year earlier following the deaths of her two sisters.”
The watchdog also quoted Slough’s brother Philip, an attorney in the U.K., as saying that Slough had “provided the clinic with ‘letters of complaint to medical authorities in Éire in respect of bogus medical conditions’, which Pegasos allegedly used to support her application. She reportedly paid £13,000 for the procedure.”
Pegasos claimed that Megan Royal had written an acknowledgement of her mother’s plan and “later confirmed its authenticity via email,” according to CARE.
However, Megan Royal denied writing the letter or “verifying it.” She alleged that her mother may have forged both the letter and email address.
“They should not have allowed her to make that decision on her own,” she reportedly told the Irish Independent. "This group did not contact me.”
Pegasos has stated it operated within Swiss law and did an assessment, including an independent psychiatric evaluation of Slough before her death, concluding she was “of sound mind,” according to CARE.
“They reported she repeatedly stated she suffered from unbearable, unrelievable chronic pain and provided documentation from a pain-management consultant,” added the CARE report.
Slough’s family want the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to investigate the case.
“This is the third case since 2023 in which families allege they were not informed about a loved one’s assisted death at Pegasos, despite previous promises by the clinic to improve its procedures,” added the CARE report.
Meanwhile, Nick Park, Executive Director, Evangelical Alliance Ireland, told Christian Daily International that the case is “extremely disturbing.”
“It appears that this lady had suffered from mental illness and had attempted suicide previously, and the family are alleging that the paperwork accepted by the clinic in Switzerland was not properly authenticated,” recalled Park, also noting the way the family was notified through a WhatsApp message from the clinic.
He expressed concern about how the case contradicted the notion that there was dignity in assisted dying.
“Advocates for Assisted Suicide talk about dying with dignity, but there is little dignity on display in this sorry tale,” said Park.
“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.”
