A family has been left distraught after allegedly receiving a text message from a suicide clinic in Switzerland telling them their mother was dead and her ashes would be sent in the post.
Maureen Slough, a 58-year-old mother from Cavan, Ireland, travelled to the Pegasos clinic on July 8 telling her family she was going to Lithuania with a friend, according to the Irish Independent.
But her daughter Megan Royal was shocked when she later received a WhatsApp message saying her mother had died listening to gospel music sung by Elvis Presley, the report claimed.
Now the family is demanding answers to find out why their mother, who they say attempted suicide a year earlier following the deaths of her two sisters, was able to seek assisted dying without the family being informed, they claim.
Friends of the mother are also reportedly horrified by the way the clinic repatriated the woman’s remains: in the post.
‘You get letters in the post, not people,’ one friend of Ms Slough, Stephanie Daly, said.
This is not the first time the non-profit assisted dying clinic Pegasos has attracted controversy.
After 47-year-old teacher Alistair Hamilton took his own life at the Swiss clinic in 2023, despite having no diagnosed illness and without the knowledge of his family, Pegasos reportedly promised it would always contact a person’s relatives before carrying out assisted death.
But then 51-year-old British mother, Anne Canning, travelled to the clinic to end her life in 2025 without informing her family, and just 19 months after sinking into depression following the unexpected death of her son.
When Ms Slough’s family became suspicious about where she was, they contacted her and say she had promised to return home.
Maureen Slough, a 58-year-old mother from Cavan who reportedly took her own life at the Pegasos clinic, and her daughter Megan Royal
Ms Slough allegedly travelled alone to Switzerland and paid £13,000 to the Pegasos Swiss Association to facilitate her death two days later
This is not the first time the non-profit assisted dying clinic Pegasos in Switzerland has attracted controversy
Ms Slough’s partner, Mick Lynch, reportedly spoke to her on the morning he would later realise was the day of her death.
‘I was actually talking to her that morning and she was full of life,’ he told the Irish Independent.
‘She said after having her breakfast… she was going out to sit in the sun. Maybe she was heading off to that place. I still thought she was coming home.’
After the shock of finding out Ms Slough had travelled alone to Switzerland and paid a reported £13,000 to the Pegasos Swiss Association to facilitate her death two days later, the family set about finding out how this could have happened.
They were shocked that Pegasos accepted Ms Slough’s application, considering the woman’s long history of mental illness, and claimed the clinic did not inform the family of her plan.
But the Pegasos group has allegedly said that it received a letter from Ms Slough’s daughter, Megan, saying she was aware of her mother’s desire to die and accepted her decision.
The clinic also claimed it verified the authenticity of the letter through an email response to Ms Royal, using an email address supplied by her mother.
Ms Royal insists she never wrote such a letter, however, or verified any contact from the assisted dying clinic, according to the report.
Now, the family claim she may have forged the ‘letter’ and verified it using an email address she created herself.
Her brother Philip, a UK solicitor, claimed Ms Slough also provided the clinic with ‘letters of complaint to medical authorities in Éire in respect of bogus medical conditions’, and said these were used by Pegasos as documents to support her application, the report said.
Ms Slough’s daughter is allegedly insisting that her mother was not in her right mind when she made the decision to travel to the clinic, considering the fact that she was grief-stricken after the deaths of her two sisters.
Her mother had attempted suicide a year earlier following the devastating news, it is claimed.
She had a difficult upbringing as a child, having been brought to Ireland by her mother and a man she had met in a UK mental hospital, according to her daughter .
‘They should not have allowed her to make that decision on her own. This group did not contact me, even though my mother had nominated me as next of kin,’ Ms Royal told the Irish Independent.
The friends of Ms Slough are not only reportedly shellshocked following the news of her death, but also by the way Pegasos returns ashes to the family through the parcel post system.
It is understood that the family also received goodbye letters, handwritten by Ms Slough, in recent weeks.
The Pegasos group has said that it carried out an extensive assessment of her mental health in the lead up to her death, including an independent psychiatric evaluation confirming she was of sound mind.
The clinic added she was consistently forthcoming about her background and history and provided medical documentation including from her pain-management consultant.
Ms Slough allegedly told the clinic repeatedly that she was in chronic pain that was unbearable despite seeing a pain specialist.
Pegasos said that Ms Slough provided the clinic with a letter from her daughter, Megan, within which she said she was fully informed of her mother’s decision, and that she had the opportunity to discuss it with her and understood the reasons behind her choice, wrote the Irish Independent.
The clinic added that Megan confirmed the authenticity of the letter via email, within which she apologised for not being able to accompany her mother to Switzerland, and that she was not happy with her mother’s choice but understood it nonetheless.
Now, Ms Slough’s brother is asking the Foreign Office in the UK to investigate the matter with Swiss authorities. It is understood that he accused the clinic of not rigorously following its own policy of informing family members prior to someone accessing assisted dying. He said he understands Pegasos sought a letter, purportedly written by Ms Royal, but criticised the clinic for only seeking confirmation through an email provided by Ms Slough herself.
‘I am working on the assumption that my sister created this email and the clinic’s procedures were woefully inadequate in verification,’ he wrote.
‘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.’
When contacted by the Daily Mail for comment, the Pegasos Swiss Association said it was unable to ‘share, confirm, nor deny the identities of our patients in public’.
It added: ‘When talking about voluntary assisted death in Switzerland, it is important to understand that all organisations are legally bound to do careful prior assessment.
‘Pegasos has always respected the applicable Swiss law without exception and continues to do so.’
