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

I think this is tragic for many reasons:

1. the abuse and trauma she suffered to lead her into such a dark place;
2. her dad jumping into legal action and opposing her wishes (no doubt stirred on and funded by pro life groups) when he’d done very little when she was a child.

There are situations that are worse than death. I do not believe in prolonging a life that is low quality. This lady was the one living her life- not any of us. She was young and didn’t want to spend decades suffering. None of us have walked in her shoes and can judge.

Ah, you are male and don't believe in abortion. Got it.

Thank you for being so empathetic about my brush with death before I was even born.

I see you are one of those "black and white and never any grey" people.

Where did I insult you? I was talking about my experience as a teenager and I asked you some valid questions which you declined to answer.

Anyway how does it feel to be a man knowing that women are now calling out shitty (vile and evil) behaviour?

Canadian woman was euthanized 'against her will' after husband was fed-up with caring for her | Daily Mail Online

This is terrifying. I have a relative who's in a care home, which is a great home. Is her life one someone would choose given a free choice, no. No-one chooses to be disabled and ill. Is it better than death, unquestionably yes. But it's expensive, obviously.

Why was she denied palliative care? It's really troubling. That woman was denied bodily autonomy. She did not want to die.

I never said “always” I said “normally”. I’d be surprised if the average person who tries to take their life is normally of sound healthy mind, but take the issue of mental illness out of it. It’s still illogical to say people who don’t support state sanctioned euthanasia must want people criminalised for attempting suicide.

Worrying about the reach of state power is surely a valid concern? In countries that have euthanasia there has been a slippery slope where it came in for terminal illness and then relaxed out to other issues. You have physically healthy 20 somethings who are euthanised now in some countries.
Whereas decriminalising suicide attempts protects the individual and doesn’t have state involvement such as the police.

If you’re against overreaching state power both make sense.

Do you really expect me to take responsibility for everyone who is the same sex as me? Again you show yourself up for simplistic black and white thinking. I won't dignify this with further responses.

He's a man standing up for women's bodily autonomy and right to single sex spaces in the most significant and brave way. I think he's ok with women calling out bad behaviour?

Ah you’re male. So your opinion on abortion doesn’t count. Your one bad experience does not dictate to millions of other women.
Imagine if women applied your logic. All men would be castrated at birth, all men would be in prison etc.
But unfortunately one (or millions) of bad experiences by women does not necessitate all men being castrated any more than your one bad experience should dictate all women are forced to give birth.

er, I was the one being aborted? Why doesn't my opinion count?

I said I would never play chess with a pigeon again but here I am.

The problem with the state killing people is that it then is never just the decision of the person who wants to die, it's always a committee decision - as shown in the linked article where they murdered a woman who didn't want to die. Human nature being what it is, this isn't great.

If they could put in place safeguards to prevent that, and make it one person's decision alone, then that would be different.

In terms of my relative, they cannot consent to death now as they don't have capacity. Should the relative with POA (power of attorney) be able to make that decision for them? Absolutely fucking not, in my opinion.

How is he standing up for women’s bodily autonomy when he has derailed a 25 year old women’s state euthanasia with anti-abortion nonsense?

Entire thread about VAWG derailed by one man complaining that he was almost aborted.

Yes I understood you were the one being aborted but like I explained, your opinion on women’s rights to an abortion does not count just because of your one bad experience and because you will never be in the position to need an abortion.

What help is available? Living in constant pain is hell. Realistically the only way to live without pain is to be on strong painkillers, and even then the body gets used to it and you need more relief. Many pain killers come with side effects, including addiction, I don’t mean addiction in terms of cravings, but addiction in terms of medication becomes less effective as the body builds up resistance to them. Medicine can only go so far in pain relief. The truth is medicine is still very limited in its ability to ‘heal’, ask anyone with severe rheumatoid arthritis*. Psychiatry is still in its infancy, and again the medications used in some psychiatric disorders, such as lithium, have some pretty horrendous side effects. I think we need to be realistic and realise medicine has limitations. We (collectively) need to be more realistic about death, all of us are going to die; life is hard, and she sounded completely broken in her body, mind and spirit. She had capacity and she had, had enough, none of should have the power over another persons autonomy.

My concern with euthanasia is not with the above case, but in cases of coercive control.

*to be clear I’m not saying someone with severe RA or in severe pain should end it, my mum suffered with very severe RA, but she still had lots of things in life that gave her pleasure. I’m saying only the person who is suffering knows how severe their suffering is, and therefore only they should be able to make that choice if they have capacity.

I'll shut down my high court case today. Sorry I did not realise as a man I could not have an opinion. So sorry everyone. I'll back out quietly.
https://www.gbnews.com/news/trans-school-court-changing-rooms

Her father is the villain for trying to deny her the right to die.

My sex matters not at all in that argument. And, I am fairly sure the discussion here is about euthanasia, not VAWG, though the cause is clear and reprehensible.

As usual I can’t authenticate this and I agree it reeks of exaggeration. I can’t link to X but here’s a picture of the interview.

If the interview is fake I think it’s pretty well done, but I don’t speak Spanish either so you may be right.

I think the fact that the story is something we have been offered as even possible is disturbing; it is certainly worth investigating.

Maybe read some of the other threads on this board. Not hard to find. He's someone very significantly and in real life standing up for girls specifically.

Questions of state decisions over life and death at all stages of life are legitimate topics of conversation I think because even if you support Noelia's decision to die, you also have to question why she reached the point where that was the decision she wanted to make - this didn't happen in a vacuum and it happened, in part, because she was denied bodily autonomy in other parts of her life.

I do support her decision, I think it's evil that the society she lived in allowed her life to be so unbearable that this was the best option. And this is a really difficult moral and ethical dilemma with assisted dying because it can, in the wrong circumstances (hello Canada) allow the state to get out of doing things like preventing VAWG, providing adequate caring support, providing adequate medical care, providing poor people adequate food and shelter Etc. They have the choice after all, they can live a shitty life on the streets or they can kill themselves (with help, suddenly there's a lot of help when they decide they want to die). In the elderly woman's case she was denied a palliative care place. Even then she didn't want to die, but if she had changed her mind that would not have been a free choice, would it?

If it’s a fake I think it’s pretty well done. I really don’t have the skills to assess whether it’s true or not.

But that the idea seems possible is dystopian.

The woman suffered severe chronic pain. The only way to be able to stop that would be to have her dosed up on morphine constantly to the point she wouldn't be able to engage with the world. What do you think the state should do about that? They cant just magic up a cure for severe chronic pain.

Those shouting about how this shouldn’t have been allowed, she should have had more help…

What help? If the Spanish healthcare system is anything like the UK, then the available help for people with severe mental health issues is useless to non-existent.

In the last few years I’ve had dealings across the border with the NHS trying to find help for a severely mentally unwell family member. The help available to adults is absolutely pathetic.

This girl was let down all her life by people. Her shit parents let her down as a child, the care system failed her as a child.

I fully support her choice to be allowed to end her life in peace. The OP saying her life could have been completely different in 20 years - where would this full and sufficient help for her come from? It doesn’t exist in public services.

Good for her, she is at peace. And the men on this thread can fuck off.

I thought about it and support her choice too, though I wish the system had taken more care to protect her and I know the men who raped her will escape consequences.