A 25-year-old Spanish woman died in Barcelona on Thursday following euthanasia, after winning a long court battle that thrust her story into the national spotlight.
Noelia Castillo received the medication that ended her life after a Barcelona court rejected a last-ditch appeal by her family to halt the procedure.
Castillo's case had been closely watched since 2024, when a medical and legal committee in Catalonia approved her application because she suffered from a serious and incurable condition, with severe and chronic suffering.
Castillo struggled with psychiatric illness since she was a teenager, and tried taking her life twice, she said, the second time after she was sexually assaulted. The injuries she suffered from her second suicide attempt in 2022 left her unable to use her legs and in a wheelchair.
Her father appealed the court decision, claiming that his daughter's mental health problems prevented her from making a free and informed decision, but the courts consistently ruled in her favour. The European Court of Human Rights also declined to intervene this mon
In a television interview broadcast on the eve of her death, Castillo explained that she was seeking "peace" and felt misunderstood. "I've finally got it, so let's see if I can finally rest," she said. "I can't go on anymore."
The family was represented by the conservative Catholic organisation Christian Lawyers, whose president, Polonia Castellanos, lamented the outcome and said the state had failed the young woman.
"Death is the last option, especially when you are very young," she said, calling the case proof of the "failure" of the law, which came into force in 2021.
Spain approved euthanasia and medically assisted suicide for people with terminal illnesses or permanent and unbearable conditions in 2021, in a legal framework that requires medical evaluations and strict guarantees. Since it entered into force, more than 1,100 people have accessed this right, according to official data.
Before her death, Castillo defended her decision in the face of opposition from those around her.
"The happiness of a father or a mother should not come before the happiness of a daughter," she said. Her death reignites a debate that brings together ethics, mental health and the limits of the right to decide.
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