Woman suddenly confesses on radio to killing sick son
A 77-year-old woman has died in Britain after confessing live on BBC radio that she killed her sick son 44 years ago.
Antonya Cooper from Abingdon wanted her confession on public broadcasting to break the taboo around euthanasia and advocate relaxation of legislation around terminally ill people.
Her son Hamish was diagnosed at the age of 5 with neuroblastoma, a rare cancer that mostly affects children. Doctors gave him three months left, but the brave little boy fought to the last gasp until the pain became unbearable. "Sixteen months later, he was in terrible pain," the mother told BBC Radio Oxford station recently. She denounced the "bestial" medical treatment he underwent. Which then made her decide to stop her infant son's suffering herself. She administered a lethal dose of morphine to him.
"When Hamish told me one evening in 1981 that he was in a lot of pain, I asked if he wanted me to take away the pain. 'Yes, please, mum,' he replied." Thereupon, Antonya administered a high dose of morphine through his catheter. "When he asked me to take away that pain, I think he knew what would happen. It was the only right thing to do. My son was suffering terribly and in intense pain, I couldn't let that happen."
The 77-year-old woman also became seriously ill herself this year. She developed breast, pancreatic and liver cancer and has since died. Her gripping testimony from her own experience has thrown the euthanasia debate wide open in the UK.
(FVDV for Tagtik/Source: BBC/Illustration picture: Annie Sprat for Unsplash)
