Noelia Castillo, a Spanish woman aged just 25, obtained authorization from the courts to die by assisted suicide this Thursday (26), contradicting the position of her family, who began a legal battle to prevent the process from moving forward. Confirmation of his death was released by the Christian Lawyers organization, which represented his father in court.
The young woman’s decision was made after living for more than four years with paraplegia and chronic pain, caused by episodes of extreme violence, a gang rape she suffered at the time, followed by a suicide attempt, which resulted in a fall that left her with serious consequences.
In their arguments before different courts, Castillo’s defense argued that his physical and psychological suffering was “considered serious and irreversible”.
With consecutive requests to revoke euthanasia denied by the Spanish courts, an independent commission concluded that the young woman met the criteria set out in the legislation to die by assisted suicide.
Understand the case
Noelia’s case became known to the Spanish public on August 2, 2024, the day her euthanasia was scheduled for the first time, after receiving approval from the Catalan Guarantee and Assessment Commission (CGAC), the body that evaluates euthanasia requests. At the last minute, a judge suspended the euthanasia, in response to the lawsuit filed by the young woman’s father, advised by the Catholic group Christian Lawyers.
The case was taken to the courts, to the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (northern Spain), the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, which rejected the last appeal, in which the father again asked for the suspension of euthanasia as a precautionary measure.
Almost two years later, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) refused to suspend the euthanasia, as requested by the father, after exhausting all legal remedies in Spain.
Noelia became the youngest patient in Spain to receive euthanasia and the sixth psychiatric patient in Catalonia to undergo assisted death.
