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

My comment is not "implying" anything. The terminology was a direct quote from the article:

She was given a lethal injection after doctors and psychiatrists determined that her post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and continuing conditions including chronic depression and suicidal mood swings could not be cured.

Just how did you think she was going to receive the injection if someone didn't give it to her? Did you think she injected herself?

Also from the article for clarity about what happens with euthanasia:

The Government of the Netherlands website defines euthanasia as being:

“… performed by the attending physician administering a fatal dose of a suitable drug to the patient on his or her express request. The relevant Dutch legislation also covers physician-assisted suicide (where the physician supplies the drug but the patient administers it.) "

This is the difference between euthanasia and assisted suicide. In euthanasia the physician administers the drug (or gives it to the patient), as happened in this particular case.

@RatWrangler No they didn't. She had severe mental distress from childhood, she wanted to die for a very long time, she fought for three years through obstacle after obstacle for the right to die because her long term incurable pain was mental not physical, and she was 29. Full adult for over ten years. The people I knew with end stage cancer got permission for AD within the same day, not over three years.

Who is "they" anyway? She went through all treatment options available from skilled and experienced professionals and they had not worked. What do you suggest, that she had unworking treatments forcibly administered for... how long? Then what?

She knew her own mind, she knew herself, she also considered the impact of her actions on others, weighed them up and it was still what she wanted.

If that makes you feel ill then it's triggering you because of your experience, but it does not mean that your experience is the same as hers and you can't impose your experience on her. I'm afraid you're projecting here. She is not you.

Well, you're also projecting, to be fair. None of us know what was going on in her head.

Thos is what was reported in the Guardian article and said herself of her treatment, diagnoses and prognosis.

Assuming it's the same person, which I thought it was.

She was not me no. But she could have been if given more time. Even if it took another decade or more. Mental pain should never deemed incurable. How do you know what treatment options she went through or how hard doctors tried to help her? I was certain I wanted to die through my teens and twenties, but because I didn't have the nerve to go through with it myself, I'm still here now. But I absolutely would have applies for assisted suicide had it been available. If someone able bodied is absolutely desperate enough they will do it themselves.

I think very rarely does advocating euthanasia for the mentally ill or disabled come from a place of compassion. It's about ridding society of those who are considered a drain on resources.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/16/dutch-woman-euthanasia-approval-grounds-of-mental-suffering

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/sex-abuse-victim-with-incurable-ptst-allowed-to-die-by-lethal-injection_uk_57344013e4b0f0f53e35bf43

@ArabellaScott the dates dont match, so they must have been different people. I was talking about the Guardian reported case, which was reported in much more depth, and that isn't the Huffington case. So my comments can't apply. Equally I dont think we know enough to pass many comments on it.

Not the case in the NL. It really isn't.

Canada seems an awful example of how Not to do it, the NL ime are a good example of how to handle it. How the UK'll manage remains to be seen, but the fact remains that as @ArabellaScott says at 08:05 its an extremely complex, difficult, confrontative and nuanced issue where legislation and procedures have to be very carefully considered and put in place. And adhered to.

Do young men with trauma also look for help to die? There are so many stories about young women with depression/ PTSD/ personality disorders/ other mental health issues who have been euthanised, but I have yet to see a single one about a young man. And it seems that almost all the young women have been raped or sexually abused.

Given the rate of SA and that most victims are female that is unsurprising.

Perhaps once we have secure govt funding for survivor support we can consider AD for those traumatised by SA. And maybe one day we might consider tackling SA itself before suicide for survivors? Call me idealistic.

I knew a Dutch guy who was denied euthanasia. He ended up ordering pills from the internet and committed suicide in his bedroom. His parents' house then turned into a crime scene.

Men have long been over represented in suicide statistics.

It does seem that among younger people the majority of people are for AD are women.

Not surprising seeing the prevalence of sexual abuse, assault etc, though it won't be present in every case.

So more females go for AD, more males commit suicide.

Edited: not sure where the male/female terminal-illness AD distribution of statistics figure in that.

@RatWrangler Mental pain should never deemed incurable.

I agree. The only exception I can think of is if someone also has a fatal disease (from which they're likely to die within a few months) in addition to their mental pain.

PTSD can be very painful. Flashbacks often involve reliving an event and experiencing the physical pain as well as the terror. I sympathize with people who no longer want to deal with that. But how can anyone know it's incurable? The same thing applies to anxiety, depression and many other problems.

PTSD also distorts my sense of time. When I'm reliving past trauma, I feel like I'll be in that moment forever. Kurt Vonnegut described it well

"Listen: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time. Billy has gone to sleep a senile widower and awakened on his wedding day. He has walked through a door in 1955 and come out another one in 1941. . . . Billy is spastic in time, has no control over where he is going next, and the trips aren't necessarily fun."

Even after the flashback, I often feel like things will never change. Depression can also feel like it will last forever. But it doesn't. I haven't felt suicidal since I stopped taking antidepressants (against medical advice). I would have never predicted that. Neither did any of my doctors.

My PTSD, depression, and Tourette's have gotten much better or worse from meds I've taken. That can last for years after I've stopped taking the med. Who knows what new treatments will be developed or which new environments or other life changes will help (or hurt)?

Would you say that all physical pain can be treated and cured in the long run?

There are a lot of people whose mental pain cannot ever be cured. Some of them have to live in psychiatric hospitals for life.

Genetic factors, environmental factors, events can all conspire to create permanent and incurable psychiatric pain.

You may want to hope that all serious mental distress is curable but that's wishful thinking.

I would agree that before AD is permitted there should be evidence of long term incurability assessed by more than one professional and evidence that treatment paths have been followed, and it should take years rather than weeks.

But no, not all severe psychiatric pain can be cured and it is unrealistic to think it can.

Someone whose mental health is so impaired that they are placed in an institution 'for life' would surely be deemed incapable of consent?

Otherwise we are getting into very slippery territory indeed.

My life story is similar to the late Noelia's - institutionalised as a child (and abused in the institution) and then raped and sexually assaulted multiple times before, during, and since. I personally don't want to die, but frankly any reasonable person would, and therapy is almost never as transformative as people hope it is, sadly. May she rest in peace.

Would you say that all physical pain can be treated and cured in the long run?

I don't know enough about most physical pain to answer but I know that ten years ago my spinal cord injury was "incurable" and now it's probably not. Paraplegia was "incurable", if by that you mean unlikely to improve with treatments at the time, but now it's not bc there are new treatments. Some people on this thread (and likely many readers of the articles about Noelia) assumed that her paralysis/paraplegia was incurable but it probably wasn't.

I know that there's a lot of research into pain. I don't know if they'll find effective treatments, what conditions they will help substantially with, or what they'll be but I know that there's a good chance that they will find new, effective treatments for pain.

I'm not suggesting that everyone will be cured, I'm saying that it's likely that many conditions that seem hopeless now won't be in the future (and some are not even now, but cost and other factors are often issues). .

I'm so sorry, plsdontlookatme. Hoping for peace and healing for you.

I don't blame her for choosing to do what she did.

I can understand.

Tbh if I was in her situation I'd probably experience similar feelings ☹️

Though I hate the fact that she felt this was her only option and that the absolute cretins who did it do her will live their lives scott free and unpunished 😫😡

From a quick online look at the Spanish system, it does appear to be relatively rigorous. I suppose that's supported by the fact that her father managed to delay her death by a couple of years. According to her, he didn't want to lose her welfare benefits. I don't blame her either.

This is so disturbing on so many levels. I sympathize with her suffering but also feel it is deeply wrong for anyone, especially the state, to assist in anyone‘s death.