Family Gets Text Message Informing Them of Mom’s Assisted Suicide

A daughter is opening up about the chilling way she learned that her mother traveled to Switzerland to end her life without their family’s knowledge.

On July 8, Maureen Slough — a 58-year-old from Cavan, Ireland — told her family she was going on vacation to Lithuania with a friend. However, she confided in two friends that she was actually traveling alone to Switzerland.

The following day, her daughter Megan Royal was contacted by one of her mother’s friends with concerns about her real plans.

“A close friend of hers messaged me on the Wednesday night, possibly at like 10 p.m. I was in bed with the baby,” Royal, a mom of two, recalled to 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.”

Royal said she immediately called her dad, who tried to contact her mother in Switzerland. She said Slough ultimately promised that she would return home. However, the following day around 1 p.m. she received a text message on WhatsApp informing her that her mother had died.

“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 said. “In that very moment, because I was alone, I just sat there with the baby and cried… I just felt like my world ended.”

Royal explained that the text message came from Pegasos, an assisted dying nonprofit organization in Liestal, Switzerland. She learned that Slough had quietly filed an application and paid £15,000 to end her life.

Assisted suicide has been legal in Switzerland since 1942, according to Dignity in Dying, a British organization. ​​It’s different from euthanasia — which is illegal — because the patients themselves administer prescribed drugs to end their lives, rather than a doctor.

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Following Slough’s death, her family is now looking for answers as to how the assisted suicide happened without their knowledge.

Royal described her mother as a “fiery, smart and dedicated woman.” However, she told the outlet that Slough had a long history of mental illness and even had a past suicide attempt while struggling to cope with the deaths of her two younger sisters. 

The family had tried to get her help through the difficult time.

“No one’s saying she wasn’t feeling pain. Not pain good enough to go and end her life. She had a lot more life to live and give,” Royal told the outlet. “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.”

In the weeks following her mother’s assisted suicide, Royal said she learned more details about the moments leading up to her decision to end her life with Pegasos. 

Pegasos did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment. The nonprofit told both Royal and the Irish Independent that Slough went through an extensive assessment prior to her death, including an independent psychiatric evaluation confirming that she was of sound mind.

Pegasos said Slough informed them of her history and stated repeatedly that she was suffering with “unbearable chronic pain.” According to the outlet, they received a letter from Royal stating that she was informed of her mother’s decision and although she didn’t agree, she accepted it.  The organization said the daughter was contacted directly via email to confirm the authenticity of the letter and Royal ultimately responded to confirm as well as apologize that she could not accompany her mother to Switzerland.

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However, Royal and her family believe Slough created the email herself and responded on behalf of her daughter. She’s now questioning Pegasos’ verification process, wondering why they didn’t use the provided WhatsApp number to call her rather than confirm authenticity via email.

“This is all just a confusing story,” Royal told the outlet. “It wasn’t even my email. With anything these days, 99% 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? If I want to set up a Roblox account for my 8-year-old I have to verify it on my phone.” 

“People are saying to me, ‘At least you didn’t find her in a bad way over here.’ Well, it was just as bad to me,” she continued. Royal claims, “She was in and out in two days and that was the end of their communication with me. Not even a condolence letter with her urn. Not even a fragile sticker on the box, just bounced around the back of a post van.”

Royal says that her uncle, Philip, Slough’s brother, is a solicitor in the UK and he’s written to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in the UK, asking it to investigate their family’s case with Swiss authorities.

In the letter, he claimed the Pegasos failed to follow its own policy of informing family. “While I understand that Swiss law permits assisted dying, the Pegasos clinic has faced numerous criticisms in the UK for their practices with British nationals, and the circumstances in which my sister took her life are highly questionable,” he wrote, Right to Life UK reports.

Royal said in early August that Slough’s ashes arrived with her family and by the end of the month, they arranged a funeral. 

“We’re going to bury her with her two sisters,” she said, noting that she’s still struggling with grief.

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health challenges, emotional distress, substance use problems, or just needs to talk, call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org 24/7.