Inquest for Oxfordshire boy whose mother said she gave him a fatal overdose over 40 years ago
His mother confessed to giving her son a fatal dose of morphine to "quietly end his life
Last updated 5th Feb 2025
The inquest into the death of a seven-year-old boy who was terminally ill and died over 40 years ago will be resuming at Oxford Coroners Court today.
His mother admitted giving her terminally ill young son a fatal dose of morphine that "did quietly end his life", before she died of cancer July last year.
Hamish Cooper, from Abingdon, had a rare childhood cancer, was aged seven when he died at home in December 1981.
He was five when he was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma and had been "in a lot of pain" by the end of his life, according to his mother Antonya Cooper.
Last year, Ms Cooper told BBC Radio Oxford, "On Hamish’s last night, when he said he was in a lot of pain, I said: ‘Would you like me to remove the pain?’ He said: ‘Yes please, mama.'
She added: "I gave him a large dose of morphine that did quietly end his life”.
The inquest into Hamish’s death opened in October 2024.
Euthanasia - deliberately ending a person's life to relieve suffering, is illegal in England and could be prosecuted as murder or manslaughter.
Ms Cooper supported efforts to change the laws around assisted dying, saying that her son endured 16 months of "beastly" cancer treatment to extend his life, in the interview.
Mrs Cooper told the BBC: "I feel very strongly that at the point of Hamish telling me he was in pain, and asking me if I could remove his pain, he knew, he knew somewhere what was going to happen.
"But I cannot obviously tell you why or how, but I was his mother. He loved his mother, and I totally loved him, and I was not going to let him suffer.
“I feel he really knew where he was going.”
"It was the right thing to do. My son was facing the most horrendous suffering and intense pain, I was not going to allow him to go through that”, she added.