Pegasos has helped a British woman to die without her family’s knowledge, despite promising to take steps to ensure this would not happen. The case made a lead item on the ITV news and was covered in the following day’s edition of The Times.
The woman was aged 51 and had been living in South Wales. She had recently lost her son and was very distressed. She sent letters from Switzerland which were received by her family after the voluntary assisted death had taken place. The letters came as a complete surprise.
What made the story particularly newsworthy was that the same thing had happened in the summer of 2024. At the time, Pegasos had apologised and promised to take steps to prevent it happening again. They have never promised to ensure that relatives are aware in such circumstances but have at least said they will go further than simply accepting the patient’s word at face value. It seems that in this recent case, some such steps were taken but no actual contact with the family was ever made.
The accompanying statement from Pegasos said “According to our protocols we do the best of our abilities that persons we assist have informed their loved ones of their plans to die. We are very sorry if Pegasos’s actions have caused further distress to any affected family”.
