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 interviewbroadcast 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 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, she 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’.
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.
Noelia said she has invited her family to say goodbye today but wants to be alone when the procedure takes place.
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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