Mother who admitted killing terminally ill son in 1981 has died

A woman who recently admitted giving her terminally ill seven-year-old son a large dose of morphine 40 years ago to end his “horrific suffering” has died.

Antonya Cooper, 77, made the confession to draw attention to efforts to change the law and allow euthanasia for terminally ill people.

She said her own diagnosis with breast, pancreatic and liver cancer had reinforced her views on euthanasia. “We don’t do it to our pets. Why would we do it to people?” she told BBC Radio Oxford last week.

Her daughter, Tabitha, said Cooper was “peaceful, pain free, at home and surrounded by her loving family” when she died last weekend.

“It was exactly how she wanted it. She lived her life on her terms and she died on her terms,” ​​she said in a statement to the BBC.

Following Cooper’s questioning over her son’s death, the family were visited by officers from Thames Valley Police, she added.

In England it is illegal to assist someone in dying, but Prime Minister Keir Starmer has promised to give parliament time to debate the issue.

In 2015, MPs rejected proposals to legalise euthanasia by 330 votes to 118. But support for change has grown significantly among MPs and the general public. Opinion polls have shown that 75% of the public support legalising euthanasia.

Cooper, from Abingdon, Oxford, said last week that her son Hamish had experienced “terrible suffering and intense pain” as a result of his stage four cancer and the “beastly” treatment.

“When Hamish said last night that he was in a lot of pain, I said, ‘Do you want me to take the pain away?’ and he said, ‘Yes, please, Mum.’

“And through his Hickman catheterI gave him a large dose of morphine which silently ended his life.”

Hamish was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a rare cancer that primarily affects children, at the age of five. He was initially given a prognosis of three months.

After 16 months of cancer treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital, his life was extended but he was still in severe pain, his mother said.

She said: “I feel very strongly that the moment Hamish told me he was in pain and asked me if I could take his pain away, he knew, somehow knew what was going to happen… It was the right thing to do. My son was going through the most horrific suffering and the most intense pain, I wasn’t going to put him through that.”

She said she understood she might be confessing to manslaughter or murder.

Following Cooper’s questioning, Thames Valley Police said they were “aware of reports of a suspected case of euthanasia involving a seven-year-old boy in 1981”.

It added: “At this early stage, police are investigating these reports and are unable to comment further whilst these investigations are ongoing.”