Get you up to speed: Spain to proceed with euthanasia for woman left paraplegic after assault
Noelia Castillo, from Barcelona, is scheduled to undergo euthanasia today at the Sant Pere de Ribes assisted living facility. The Catalan government granted her request for euthanasia in July 2024 after she was left paraplegic from a failed suicide attempt.
Noelia Castillo, a 25-year-old woman from Barcelona, is set to undergo euthanasia at the Sant Pere de Ribes assisted living facility after her request was granted by the Catalan government in July 2024, following a prolonged legal battle with her father. The European Court of Human Rights dismissed a last-minute appeal to stop the procedure, maintaining the legal standing of Spain’s euthanasia law.
Noelia Castillo is scheduled to undergo euthanasia at the Sant Pere de Ribes assisted living facility at 5pm UK time today. Having received approval from the Catalan government in July 2024, she expressed a desire to die peacefully after enduring significant pain and suffering.
Gang rape victim, 25, paralysed after suicide attempt set to die by euthanasia | News World
A 25-year-old woman left paraplegic from a failed suicide attempt after she was gang raped is scheduled to end her life by euthanasia today.
Noelia Castillo, from Barcelona, will undergo the procedure at the city’s Sant Pere de Ribes assisted living facility on Thursday.
Although the Catalan government granted her request for euthanasia in July 2024, she has spent the two years in limbo while her father tried to halt the process through the courts. A last-minute appeal to the European Court of Human Rights also failed this week.
Noelia, who has been in a wheelchair since 2022, said: ‘I want to go now and stop suffering, period. None of my family is in favour of euthanasia. But what about all the pain I’ve suffered during all these years?
Poignantly, she added that ‘the happiness of a father, a mother, or a sister cannot be more important’ than her own.
Noelia said she has invited her family to say goodbye today but wants to be alone when the procedure takes place.
Outlining how she wants to spend her final moments in an interview broadcast on the Spanish Antena 3 programme Y Ahora Sonsoles, she said: ‘I want to die looking beautiful. I’ve always thought I want to die looking good. I’ll wear my prettiest dress and put on makeup; it will be something simple.’
Noelia Castillo, from Barcelona, will undergo the procedure at the city’s Sant Pere de Ribes assisted living facility on Thursday (Picture: Antena 3)
Noelia was sexually abused by an ex-boyfriend and three other men days before jumping from the fifth floor of a building in a bid to take her own life in October 2022, Spanish media reports.
She suffered a severe spinal cord injury, which has left her unable to move from the waist down and in near constant pain, according to daily newspaper El Mundo.
Laying bare the rift that has emerged in her family in the years since, Noelia said: ‘My father saw me fall and couldn’t do anything.
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‘But after everything he’s done, I don’t feel sorry for him anymore.’
While Spain is one of only a few countries where euthanasia is legal, there are very strict requirements.
The law states that anyone of sound mind who is suffering from a ‘serious and incurable illness’ or a ‘chronic and disabling’ condition can request assistance to die.
But Noelia’s father claimed she did not meet those requirements, telling the courts she suffered from mental disorders that ‘could affect her ability to make a free and conscious decision’.
Madrid, SPAIN – MARCH 18: The deputy of the VOX conservative party, Espinosa de los Monteros, gives his support to the demonstration against the euthanasia law in front of the Congress of Deputies on March 18, 2021 in Madrid, Spain. In 1989 Maria Jose Carrasco was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a disease that was degrading her physically to the point of being unable to support herself. In 2019, she repeatedly asked to be able to end her own life in order to stop her suffering, but the request was unsuccessful. With the help of her husband, Angel Hernandez, she committed suicide in April, 2019 . The case raised a lot of questions at a national level and promoted the current euthanasia law which is to be approved today on March 18, 2021 in the congress of deputies, in the face of much controversy, with the conservative parties particularly opposed to it, resulting in a protest at the gates of Congress during voting. (Photo by Joan Amengual/VIEWpress)” decoding=”async” loading=”lazy”/>
A demonstration against the euthanasia law in front of the Congress of Deputies in Madrid, Spain (Picture: Joan Amengual/VIEWpress)
He also said her condition did not amount to ‘unbearable physical or psychological suffering’.
‘Why does he want me alive? To keep me in a hospital?’ she remarked during the interview.
Her mother also appeared in the interview, saying she wished she had a ‘magic wand’ that could change her daughter’s mind.
She said: ‘I do not agree, but I will always be by her side.’
The procedure is reportedly due to take place at 5pm UK time.
Noelia said: ‘I’ve finally done it. Let’s see if I can finally rest because I can’t take this family anymore, the pain, everything that torments me from what I’ve been through.
‘I don’t want to be an example for anyone, it’s simply my life, and that’s all.’
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