How the State Failed Noelia Castillo

On March 26, Noelia Castillo, a twenty-five-year-old Spanish woman, was killed by her doctors at her own request. Her father tried to prevent it. Her best friend traveled to Barcelona to try to change her mind, or at least to say goodbye (they had been out of touch for some time), but she wasn’t allowed into the hospital. The case has generated global outrage and been deemed a colossal failure of the state. She is the third youngest person to be euthanized in Spain.

According to her own account in a television interview the day before her death, Noelia had been sexually assaulted on three separate occasions. The third incident allegedly took place in 2022, when she was brutally gang-raped by three men in a nightclub. None of the incidents was reported. Noelia then attempted to commit suicide by jumping from a fifth-floor window, leaving her paraplegic.

She later regained some mobility in her legs. Her father shared videos of her recovery progress, in which he can be seen encouraging her and cheering her on. In her daily life, she could dress herself and apply makeup on her own. Even so, the state determined that she could qualify for euthanasia because her disability caused “severe dependence.”

Her father spent twenty months leading a legal battle to halt the process, with the support of the Christian Lawyers Association. He argued that the procedure should be postponed until his daughter could receive comprehensive psychiatric treatment. Noelia had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and she was taking antidepressants. He argued that there is a serious legal loophole, where assisted suicide is offered without prior attempts at treatment, and that Noelia’s decision was not “fully free,” as the system had not first guaranteed access to all available forms of support. Nevertheless, the European Court of Human Rights green-lit the procedure. Her father’s lawyers have alleged that the hospital pushed for Noelia to be euthanized because her organs had already been earmarked for donation.

In her final hours, hundreds of young people gathered outside the hospital to pray for her. Public figures offered to pay for any treatment she might need for the rest of her life. But by Thursday afternoon, she was gone.

Noelia’s tragic life points to systemic negligence. At thirteen, the Catalan government removed Noelia from her parents’ custody after the family became homeless. She and her sister were sent to a state-run children’s home. But when she needed help most, as she suffered unbearable chronic and psychological pain, the state did not offer intensive treatment or hope. It instead offered to kill her.

Spain’s government, led by far-left Pedro Sánchez, legalized euthanasia in 2021. Pro-euthanasia activists in Spain often invoke the Ramón Sampedro case to advocate legalization. Sampedro was a sailor who became a quadriplegic at the age of twenty-five. His dependence was total, and he tried in vain to have the courts allow his assisted suicide without criminal charges for those who helped him die. The courts denied his request, but he ultimately committed suicide in 1998 at the age of fifty-five with the help of several people. His case opened the political debate on euthanasia in Spain and inspired the pro-euthanasia film Mar Adentro, starring the Oscar-winning left-wing actor and activist Javier Bardem.

In 2021, the government presented the legalization of euthanasia as a tribute to Ramón Sampedro and all the other “Ramón Sampedros” waiting for the law to pass. All the left-wing parties and the Catalan separatists voted in favor of the law, while most center- and right-wing parties voted against it.

Five years later, what those who opposed assisted suicide warned about has come to pass. Noelia was not Ramón Sampedro. She was not quadriplegic, or elderly, or confined to a bed. She was a young woman with her whole life ahead of her.

The best summary of the pro-life sentiment, after learning of the girl’s death, was given by Pepa Millán, spokesperson for the national conservative party Vox: “How sad is everything that has surrounded this case. What a failure for everyone. I hope that no one going through similar suffering will ever again lack the affection, care, and support of those in positions of responsibility. Let us pray for her soul. Rest in peace, Noelia. May the perpetual light shine upon her.”