Woman dies by euthanasia after becoming paraplegic trying to commit suicide after gang rape

[AComplicatedWoman]

This is one of the most heartbreaking news stories I have come across.

Noelia Castillo had a difficult childhood and spent much of it in care homes. She was sexually assaulted by her ex-boyfriend of four years after she had taken sleeping pills to help her sleep, and was assaulted on another occasion by several men in a nightclub. She attempted suicide in October 2022, and it left her unable to use her legs and in a wheelchair. Noelia conducted a long legal battle with her father for the right to end her life and she died by euthanasia on Thursday.

RIP Noelia. I am so sorry that your life was destroyed by these abhorrent abusive men.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/noelia-castillo-euthanasia-law-spain-b2946671.html

you can be therapied out of trauma, you can be fixed, you can be ok. Perhaps that was never to be for her. Perhaps some people will never be better.

It's true that we don't know, for any individual, whether they'll get better. Life may even get worse, as hers did when she became paraplegic. But most people that I 've known - and I've known many people with trauma or mental illness - do get better, especially if they have support. Most of them improve if they can live in a non-abusive environment. It often takes years but their lives do get better.

I'm not "ok" now, if by that you mean normal. I have CPTSD. I will probably always have CPTSD and several other health problems. But I think my life is worth living. Most of the people I know with traumatic backgrounds still struggle every day. All of them wanted to die at some point (often at several points) in their lives. But they're glad to be alive now, even if they still struggle.

I just think that, in cases where the person could have committed suicide at any point if they wished, normalising the state assisting unnecessarily could cause issues that outweigh the benefits, considering that no one is stopping the person from killing themselves without state assistance. Especially given the way it's playing out in Canada.

you can be therapied out of trauma, you can be fixed, you can be ok. Perhaps that was never to be for her. Perhaps some people will never be better.

Which is why there should be much tougher sentences for VAWG including the entry-level behaviours like indecent exposure. To prevent some of the trauma in the first place. This would also result in there being more MH resource to go around for the fewer numbers who still need it.

She wanted to die - it was her choice.

I think it is less humane to force her to live a life of constant pain and suffering

Of course you do.

I'll make whatever relevent points I choose. You don't control the discussion.

You also can't seem to understand that people can hold different views to yourself - which are equally as valid; and that you don't have a monopoly on truth or righteousness in the way you seem to think you do, judging by the way you are addressing other posters

Plenty of women who don't like it either, it seems.

Agreed. @SingleSexSpacesInSchools is entitled to his opinions, as are we all.

Precisely. People can and do recover from all kinds of traumatic experiences. I worry so much that in a world where assisted dying is seen as a viable option, more people will be written off by health and other professionals, who do sometimes have an attitude of 'there was nothing anyone could do' when the reality was closer to 'there was nothing we could do with the limited time / resources / understanding we had / were prepared to invest and within the severely limited and problematic system we were operating in'.

It’s an absolutely tragic case, may she rest in peace now.

I think Canada is a cautionary tale on this issue, and I say this as someone who was very much pro euthanasia at one time. I’ve also had periods in my life when I really didn’t want to be here, but had I successfully acted on that feeling I would have missed out on an awful lot.

I fear that, if euthanasia were legalised and normalised, it would lead to healthcare services being further cut back, and once things are gone it’s very difficult to get them back. Along with the problem of vulnerable people being pressurised I find it very difficult to get behind the idea now. The stories from Canada are too horrific.

I’m still all over the place on this one.

On the one hand, I am very dubious about anyone under the age of thirty-five being offered assisted dying unless they have under six months to live.

Just think how much we change between twenty and thirty-five! The early twenties is always a very rocky period.

On the other hand, if someone is determined to kill themselves, far better that it is done in a civilised, medicalised environment instead of people jumping out of windows or in front of trains and potential hurting others in the process.

I do have huge concerns about killing being authorised by the state though, especially in health care systems that are financially stretched.

In this particular case though, I agree with the very salient point made by a pp, that perhaps this young women lived in constant fear of potential abuse by her carers, or the thought of being dependent on others whom she couldn’t entirely trust after her previous experience of gang rape was very much in her mind sadly. She was so incredibly vulnerable. RIP.

That's my concern as well. It's easy to write off anyone seen as problematic or lesser. Doctors already do that, as shown by how long it took me to get an MRI for a spinal tumour. I had similar problems with my DDs health care. Doctors are hasty to blame patients when they don't improve as quickly as the doctor expects. They wash their hands of your problem bc it takes more effort or resources than they're willing to invest. I think the expected outcome is that "difficult" or expensive-to-care for patients will be pushed to be kind, think of others, and let them get on with their lives without having to care for said patient. Care will be even more difficult to obtain because assisted suicide is seen as potentially the best outcome.

It seems to me that all this poor woman had ever known was pain and suffering, so I wouldn't blame her for not being able to ever imagine a future without it. That's before you take into account the physical trauma and suffering.

As pp have rightly pointed out, this isn't a black and white issue. It's the ultimate shade of grey in fact. Sometimes euthanasia really is the least awful of all the unspeakably awful options available to someone.

I am keeping an eye out for confirmation of whether her organs were donated.

This is what troubled me the most-the fact her best friend couldn't visit her to say goodbye incase she changed her mind....the organs were needed and had been promised to other people so even if she changed her mind she would still be euthanised....that is not right. You should have the right to change your mind at the last minute. We will see what facts come to light

Wiki has information and links to details of the case (mostly in Spanish).

No mention there or in any of the links I hss as be looked at so far that mention organ donation.

her application for euthanasia was on the grounds of severe and unrelenting pain.

she seems to have gone into state care at 13 when her parents lost their house. It isn’t clear (or possibly my Spanish is not up to) whether this was mandatory going into care or whether the parents chose to put her in care.

https://www.elconfidencial.com/espana/2025-03-18/historia-eutanasia-noelia-religiosas-notario-vida-tutelada_4088160/

anyone with better Spanish than mine is welcome to have a look.

The English version of el PAÍS seems clearer that she was taken into care due to parental neglect and that her father who opposed her choice never saw her or spent any time with her.

https://english.elpais.com/international/2026-03-26/noelia-castillo-the-young-woman-who-fought-her-parents-for-her-right-to-die-i-cant-take-this-family-anymore.html?outputType=amp

I don't know what more to say. I hope her hesitation is investigated & if she was told 'there's no turning back' that person is struck off.

i understand how devastating it would be to the recipients to have to be told it's no longer going ahead, but I'm sure very very few would want them under these circumstances.

Its not clear from that what they mean by neglect though, neglect by way of them not having a house?

Or long term neglect in terms of her formative years?

I agree with you 100%

we've had kidney donations in our family so I do understand the bundles of mixed emotions & how a last minute cancellation of a transplant is devastating, but there's no way, a cancellation of donation from a woman in this position wouldn't have been understandable.

Absolutely x

She looks like a child. I had misunderstood the situation I thought she had been abused within the care setting although she didnt claim that.

None of the news reports or any other reports mention organ donation and several of them explicitly say there are rumours circulating on social media that are false.

The care agency that was responsible for Noellia has stated that they have no records of any rapes and in her final televised interview she itemises the sexual assaults and rapes none of which are while she was in care.