A 25-year-old woman left paraplegic following a suicide attempt has died by euthanasia in Barcelona on Thursday, after Spanish courts rejected a series of legal challenges brought by her father in an attempt to prevent the procedure going ahead.
Noelia Castillo, from Barcelona, underwent the procedure at the Sant Pere de Ribes assisted living facility where she had been residing. Her request for euthanasia had been approved by the Catalan government in July 2024, but was delayed for more than a year and a half as her father, backed by the ultraconservative Catholic group Christian Lawyers, pursued appeals through multiple levels of the Spanish legal system, including the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court. A last-minute application to the European Court of Human Rights was also rejected this week, though the court indicated it would continue to examine the broader case at a later date.
Castillo had spoken publicly about her decision and the suffering that led her to it. “I want to go now and stop suffering, period,” she said. “I don’t feel like doing anything: not going out, not eating. Sleeping is very difficult for me, and I have back and leg pain.” In her final interview, broadcast on Spanish television programme Y Ahora Sonsoles, she described wanting to spend her last moments wearing her “prettiest dress” with makeup on, having invited her family to say goodbye beforehand but wishing to be alone when the injection was administered.
Castillo spent much of her childhood in care due to her parents’ addiction and mental health difficulties. In 2022, she was reportedly sexually assaulted by a former boyfriend and three other men. Days later, on 4 October 2022, she jumped from the fifth floor of a building, sustaining a severe spinal cord injury that left her unable to move from the waist down and caused chronic neuropathic pain and incontinence.
Her father had argued that mental health conditions affected her capacity to make a free and informed decision as required under Spanish law, and claimed there were indications she had changed her mind. Castillo rejected those characterisations, saying he had never respected her wishes and accusing him of failing to engage meaningfully with her situation beyond occasional visits.
“The happiness of a father, a mother, or a sister cannot be more important than the life of a daughter,” she said.
Spain legalised euthanasia in 2021, permitting the procedure for those of sound mind suffering from a serious and incurable illness or a chronic and disabling condition. Legal proceedings connected to the case are expected to continue, with Christian Lawyers having filed complaints against medical professionals and members of Catalonia’s oversight commission.
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