(StraightNews.org) – A woman killed herself at an assisted suicide facility in Switzerland after posting on social media that she could no longer endure her husband’s abuse. Catherine Kassenhoff, of Westchester, New York, posted a message to Facebook saying she woke up every day to “a nightmare like no other.” She then accused her husband, Allen Kassenhoff, of abusing her and their three children, prompting her to kill herself. She wrote that she would end her life in a “dignified and idyllic setting in Europe.”
Subsequent reports indicate that the successful 54-year-old litigator was devastated when she lost custody of her children after a four-year-long court battle. The couple spent millions of dollars and filed more than 3,000 documents in various courts, but the protracted divorce proceedings continued to drag on.
Before leaving for Europe, Kassenhoff emailed her attorneys, police, friends, and her husband’s colleagues, saying Allan Kassenhoff manipulated the courts and managed to persuade a judge to remove her parental rights. She reportedly attached video clips showing her husband yelling at her and her children, as well as copies of police reports and children’s therapy records.
Furthermore, the mother of three wrote that she had been diagnosed with cancer and did not “have the strength to go forward.” A tearful Allan Kassenhoff said he felt very sorry for his wife but insisted it was she who was abusive, and she made his life “a living hell” for years.
No further details on the custody battle were published.
Assisted suicide has been legal in Switzerland since the 1930s, and every year, more than 1,000 people travel to specialized clinics to end their lives. The Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences has established guidelines and criteria which dictate that a person seeking help with suicide must be an adult of sound mind and capable of self-administering the lethal concoction used to cause death. The person must also be suffering from a terminal disease or “be plagued with unbearable suffering.”
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