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

Not anyone no. The woman was in a wheelchair. Chronic pain and could not function. She had all the medical assessments. There was a right to die from the highest court in the land. Not just suicide. Its heartbreaking. But there is a need for dignity in dying.

'State help'

even if that was top notch, it isn't enough if you don't have people around you that love you & you can't be independent & have a future to look forward to.

what do you think she would have got out of being alive?

But this decisions wasn't made in a vacuum. This woman was let down and abused to the point where she felt that her only option was to end her life. Why are we celebrating this as some kind of victory for autonomy and not an absolute tragedy and utter failure?
Is it autonomy if someone is abused to the point of wanting to die?

Her situation was beyond effective help. What kind of civilised, progressive society would force someone to endure decades of pain and disability, and not help them end their suffering, if that's what they wanted?

I am the mother of a son and am smart enough to know that while individual men can be perfectly nice, men as a sex are responsible for 98% of sexual assault. Why is this point so hard to grasp for mothers of sons? I never said all men are monsters in the making. Those were your words.

Because she didn't want help. Her life - in her opinion, which is the only one that matters - was intolerable.

How do you know it was beyond help? We don't know what her life could have been like in 20, 30, 40 years with support and kindness and therapy, they just killed her instead.

You're missing so much.

So someone abuses another person to the point where that person wants to die, and the state kills them. That's a victory for autonomy? Or a state that has utterly failed?

Read other people's replies & you might gain some understanding.

Im not at all, dont tell me what Im 'missing'

I agree with every post here, both sets of views. This is not something that is a black and white thing.

It can be both without contradiction.

I guess they could invent the technology to reverse her paraplegia and eliminate her chronic pain, but is that likely in the next 50 years? Who could blame her for deciding not to take that gamble?

We don't know that she wasn't offered help, ie psychological support, sometimes the trauma people have been through is beyond what we are able to help with in 2026.

I work in mental health and see people who are very damaged and despite lots of input don't get better. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying I think euthanasia is the answer but I also understand this poor girl wanting an end to her suffering.

I have read all the replies. I don't understand how this can be anything other than a total failure.

You can't help everyone. Some things are not fixable.

Quality of life is far more important than quantity of life.

We seem to have put this argument to bed when it comes to pets, and humans are more complex and more valuable, not to mention, able to state their own mind.

Sometimes the least bad option, is to end things in a manner of your own choosing. I certainly want the option to end my own life, surrounded by those important to me, rather than rot away at the end of my life with some gradual wasting disease.

The grimmest thing I have seen concerning this is her lawyer on X; the lawyer gave an interview claiming Noella herself was wavering and told she could not change her mind because the medical authorities had allocated her organs for donation.

If any of that bears examination the action of the state is ethically questionable.

So people who are paraplegic or in pain can't live a life of any value?

I have two Nigels who have a lot of Nigel friends. I am not remotely offended.

In fact I think women should be allowed to be absolutely fucking angry about this and not have to moderate their language or add caveats and exceptions. What a disgusting piece of shit her father is to be involved when it’s way too late to help his daughter and to only cause her more pain and suffering.

What kind of ‘human beings’ consciously abuse young, vulnerable women and girls for their own sexual fetishes? It’s just even hard to see them as the same species quite honestly. Maybe if she’d had the right support and help after the rape she may, just have been able to heal. But I think that’s highly unlikely because we still have people in society who think it’s more important to protect men from the consequences of their actions than to support the victims. I know two women who have experienced sexual assault and in both cases women known to the perpetrators lied in court to protect them.

As for whether we should force women to continue to live in pain and suffering unless you actually have been there to help women and girls to pick up the pieces how do you think you should even have an opinion? Do you know anything about the pain and mental anguish involved? As proven in this case if you are vulnerable and have suffered previously you become surrounded by more perpetrators.

Even if you get help it can often be sedating someone to oblivion. Women who have fought for so long may well no longer have any fight left. It’s the height of arrogance to think that you know better what is good for them than they do. Of course we should help people to get through suicidal feelings. Of course it should be the absolute last resort. But in this case I absolutely support the decision, tragic though it is and hope we do better to change the social mindset from castigating victims for wearing the wrong clothes or drinking too much and instead support them and punish the perpetrators.

Without wanting to make light of this - have you ever seen Star Trek?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobayashi_Maru

Sometimes in life we are faced with no win scenarios.

What's important is how we face them, do we still do the right thing?

Don;t be so foolishly black and white.

Of course some of them can, most I should think. But some are in unbearable pain and want the option to end that pain having exhausted all other avenues within reason.

Did I say that they couldn't? Anyway, that's for those who are paraplegic or in pain to decide, not you or I.

That is the biggest piece of garbage rumour I have ever heard. OF COURSE the state did not kill her because they had already sold her organs don't be so gullible.

Not in the slightest. This is about unbearable mental pain and suffering.

Ending your life isn’t as simple as popping into the pharmacy on that day. It’s multiple appointments with doctors and mental health reviews. I support euthanasia if we can show the person is of sound mind.

This lady was let down by her parents, the state, and then medical professionals. If anything this was the last bit of kindest they could have showed.

Having watched someone die from MND, if I had the same fate I would 110% be off to Switzerland to have a dignified death.