A 25-year-old gang rape victim who was left paralyzed after a suicide attempt is scheduled to die by euthanasia after court officials overruled her father’s desperate last-ditch effort to stop it.
Noelia Castillo, of Barcelona, will undergo the lethal procedure at an assisted living facility in Spain on Thursday— ending a yearslong legal battle and the young woman’s life.
Castillo has been confined to a wheelchair since 2022 when she previously tried to die by suicide by jumping from a fifth-floor building after she was left traumatized by a horrific gang rape by three men at a state-supervised center for vulnerable youth, Leading Britain’s Conversation reported.
She survived the jump, but was left paralyzed from the waist down and suffers from chronic pain, leading her to seek assisted suicide, which has been legal in Spain since 2021.
“I want to go now and stop suffering, period. None of my family is in favor of euthanasia. But what about all the pain I’ve suffered during all these years?” she said in an interview with Spanish Antena 3 programme Y Ahora Sonsoles, according to LBC.
“I don’t feel like doing anything: not going out, not eating. Sleeping is very difficult for me, and I have back and leg pain.
“I’ve told them how I want it to be. I want to die looking beautiful. I’ve always thought I want to die looking good. I’ll wear my prettiest dress and put on makeup; it will be something simple,” she said.
Castillo was approved for assisted suicide in 2024, but the approval was challenged by her father, who was supported by conservative religious Spanish group Abogados Cristianos (Christian Lawyers).
They argued that her mental health was blocking her ability to make a sound decision as important as life or death. That appeal was rejected, as was a last-second appeal made to the European Court of Human Rights this week, the Daily Mail reported.
Castillo said her father “hasn’t respected my decision and he never will.”
“Why does he want me alive? To keep me in a hospital?” she wondered.
Her mother, Yolanda Ramos, meanwhile, told Marca she would be with her daughter when she dies.
“I do not agree, but I will always be by her side”
