Antonya Cooper, from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, has revealed that she gave her terminally ill son, Hamish, a large dose of morphine to end his life and ease his suffering. Hamish had stage 4 neuroblastoma, a rare cancer that primarily affects children, which was diagnosed when he was five years old. After 16 months of treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital, his life was extended but he was left in significant pain. Cooper helped to launch charity Neuroblastoma UK after her son’s death. Now, Cooper, facing a terminal diagnosis herself, made her admission to BBC Radio Oxford in an effort to change the law on assisted dying.
Under current UK law, assisted suicide and euthanasia are illegal. However, campaigners for a “right to die” argue that people should have the right to choose when and how to die in order to avoid suffering. Some critics argue that changing the law could place pressure on vulnerable people to end their lives for fear of being a financial or emotional burden. Recently, MPs debated the issue, though the government said it was a matter of conscience for individual parliamentarians rather than one for government policy.
Cooper acknowledged that she could potentially be admitting to manslaughter or murder. She stated that while she believed Hamish understood, he knew, and that he was going to pass through this, she was not going to let him suffer. She added that it was the right thing to do and insisted she would face the consequences, including potentially quick ones, because she is dying too.
Assisted dying is when someone who is terminally ill seeks medical help to obtain lethal drugs, which they self-administer, while assisted suicide involves helping another person end their life. Currently, both are illegal in the UK. In recent times, Scotland, Jersey, and the Isle of Man have all talked about changing their laws to let terminally ill people end their lives. Over a 15-year period, the Crown Prosecution Service received 190 cases regarding this matter, with most of them being inactive, while there have been four successful prosecutions
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