Noelia Castillo Ramos, a Spanish 25-year-old gang rape victim from Barcelona, is slated to receive euthanasia Thursday following a lengthy legal battle by her father who sought to stop the procedure.
The young woman, largely identified by Spanish outlets by her first name, Noelia, was left paraplegic after she tried to commit suicide by leaping from a fifth-floor window in October 2022 after she was gang raped, which left her suffering from a horrific trauma.
The incident reportedly left her with a severe and irreversible complete spinal cord injury, a “paraplegia that prevents her from moving from the waist down and causes her severe neuropathic pain and incontinence.” She started her request to receive euthanasia in 2024, leading to a two-year legal battle.
“Born into a very dysfunctional family, her parents’ addictions and mental health issues meant that Noelia spent much of her childhood and adolescence in juvenile detention centers,” El Pais wrote. “The young woman places the trigger of everything in 2022 after a gang rape.”
El Mundo reports that on Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) refused to halt Noelia’s euthanasia after her father filed a last interim measure, having exhausted all venues of appeal in Spain.
On Wednesday, Spanish broadcaster Antena3 published an interview it held with Noelia, marking her first — and last — interview she ever held, should she ultimately receive euthanasia on Thursday evening. The interview was recorded at her grandmother’s house.
Spanish journalist Bea Osa, who interviewed Noelia, stated that the young woman reached out to Antena3 after the date for the euthanasia was confirmed to leave a “posthumous message.”
“I’ve finally done it. I hope I can finally get some rest because I can’t take this family anymore—the pain, everything that’s tormenting me in my head from what I’ve been through,” she sentenced. “I don’t want to be an example to anyone; it’s just my life, and that’s all there is to it.”
“No one in my family is in favor of it, but a father’s happiness shouldn’t take precedence over a daughter’s happiness or her life,” she said. “I just want to go in peace and stop suffering.”
“I don’t feel like doing anything. Not going out, not eating, nothing. My back hurts, and my legs hurt too,” she detailed. “Before requesting euthanasia, I saw my world as very bleak; I had no goals or objectives.”
Noelia recounted that she had tried to commit suicide on other occasions and, after “two suicide attempts with pills,” her mother admitted her to the “first” psychiatric hospital, where she committed acts of self harm and tried to drink a bottle of cleaning chemicals from the cleaning cart, “and then they pumped my stomach.”
“At the second psychiatric hospital, I cut myself and tried to kill myself. I’ve never stopped hurting myself,” she said.
She also noted, “I really don’t like the direction society and the world are heading; I’d rather just disappear. It’s getting worse and worse.”
