Noelia Castillo Ramos, a 25-year-old Spanish woman who had been paralyzed since a 2022 suicide attempt, received life-ending medicine on Thursday, Mar. 26, at a healthcare center in Sant Pere de Ribes, Barcelona, concluding a nearly two-year legal fight waged by her father and a conservative Catholic legal group to stop the procedure.
The organization Abogados Cristianos, which represented Castillo's family throughout the legal battle, confirmed her death. Attorney Polonia Castellanos, president of the group, said the family was deeply disappointed and believed the Spanish government had failed their daughter.
"Death is the last option, especially when you're very young," Castellanos said. "We've been told it was a law for very extreme cases. Here we see that it's being used to end the life of a girl of only 25 years who has a treatable illness," according to EWTN News.
Castillo struggled with psychiatric illness since her teenage years and was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. She entered foster care at age 13 and attempted suicide twice. Her second attempt in October 2022, which followed a sexual assault, left her wheelchair-bound with chronic physical pain.
In April 2024, she requested euthanasia through an independent commission in Catalonia made up of doctors, lawyers, and bioethics experts. The body unanimously approved her request in July 2024, finding her condition serious and incurable and her suffering severe and debilitating.
Her father moved immediately to block the procedure, arguing through Abogados Cristianos that his daughter's mental illness made her incapable of making an informed decision about ending her life. A court suspended the request in August 2024 while it deliberated.
The case then moved through multiple levels of Spain's court system. A Barcelona court sided with Castillo, but her father appealed to the High Court of Justice of Catalonia, then the Supreme Court, which upheld her rights in January 2026, People reported.
Spain's Constitutional Court dismissed a further appeal in February. As a last effort, the group appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which denied the request earlier this month. In total, the legal battle delayed the procedure by 601 days.
In her final interview with Spanish broadcaster Antena 3, which aired the day before her death, Castillo was direct. "At last, I've managed it, so let's see if I can finally rest now. I just cannot go on anymore," she said. Addressing her family's opposition, she added: "A parent's happiness shouldn't come before a daughter's life."
Spain legalized euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in 2021 for adults with terminal illness or unbearable permanent conditions.
Since the law took effect, 1,123 people had received life-ending medicine through 2024, according to Spain's health ministry. Castillo's case is considered the first in Spain where euthanasia was approved primarily on mental health grounds, as per the Associated Press.
