Mom Said She Was on Vacation, Got Assisted Suicide Instead

When Maureen Slough told friends in early July she was heading to Lithuania on vacation with a friend, her daughter, Megan Royal, didn’t think twice. But soon after, concern arose when one of Slough’s friends contacted Royal with shocking news: the 58-year-old Irish woman was actually alone in Switzerland, planning an assisted suicide.

“You have a right to know. I was sworn to secrecy,” the friend told Royal, according to the Irish Independent. “I was so scared in that moment,” Royal later said.

Slough had confided in the friend via text, writing, “I’m not myself” and “I feel like I’ve been living in hell for the last year,” Wales Online reports. Desperate to locate her mother, Royal contacted her father, prompting a family-wide search. Slough soon found out her family was looking for her and promised to come home.

But the next day, Royal received a message from the Pegasos nonprofit for voluntary assisted dying, informing her that her mother had died. “They advised me that her ashes would be posted to me in [six to eight] weeks,” Royal told People. “I just sat there with [my] baby and cried… I just felt like my world ended.”

It was later revealed that Slough had paid approximately $20,000 to Pegasos to undergo an assisted death in Switzerland, where the practice has been legal since World War II. According to Pegasos, Slough passed an independent psychological evaluation and was deemed of sound mind. The organization said she sought to end her life due to “unbearable chronic pain.”

Pegasos also claimed it had received a letter from Royal acknowledging knowledge of her mother’s plans. The organization said it even emailed Royal to confirm its authenticity. However, Royal believes her mother may have fabricated both the letter and a fake email account to intercept any communications.

While Slough had a history of mental illness and was going through a particularly difficult period, Royal insists her mother “wasn’t terminally ill or, in my opinion, ill enough to go and do this and leave our family behind like that.” She added, “She had a lot more life to live and give.”

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