Young Spanish woman dies by euthanasia after long legal battle with parents

Twenty-five-year-old Spaniard Noelia Castillo, who sought to be allowed euthanasia and fought a long battle with her family over her right to do so, died on Thursday in Barcelona after being given a chemical agent to end her life, following court approval.

In an interview broadcast on Wednesday, the day before her death, Castillo told Spanish television station Antena 3: "In the end, I succeeded. I just can't go on." Her reasoning was simple: "The happiness of a father or mother should not outweigh the happiness of a daughter."

Castillo was mentally ill and therefore attempted suicide twice. The second time, as she told Antena 3 television, she tried after a sexual assault in 2022, and since then she has been unable to walk and has been in a wheelchair.

Castillo asked an independent Catalan committee of doctors, lawyers and bioethicists to approve her euthanasia in April 2024. The committee approved her request based on assessments that assessed her health condition as serious and incurable, concluding that the 25-year-old was also suffering from severe, chronic and debilitating suffering.

Castillo fought for her right to die for a year and a half after her father initiated a legal battle. Her parents opposed her decision until the very end, and were represented by the conservative Catholic organization Abogados Cristianos.

The father presented the argument through that organization that mental illness makes his daughter incapable of making decisions, and that she is seeking to end her life.

When a court in Barcelona ruled in favor of Castillo and her right to euthanasia, her father's lawyers appealed again, and the case eventually reached Spain's Supreme Court. In January, the court upheld Castillo's rights.

In a last-ditch attempt to stop the procedure, the organization Abogados Cristianos filed an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights, which rejected the request this month.

Lawyer Polonia Castellanos said the family believes the state abandoned their daughter by allowing her to die.

She reiterated her clients' argument that Castillo had a personality disorder and assessed that the case is an example of the failure of the euthanasia law and should be repealed immediately.

While the family's legal battle unfolded, the case was closely watched in Spain, where a law has granted the right to euthanasia and medically assisted suicide for terminally ill patients and those with an unsustainable permanent condition since 2021. The process involves submitting two written requests, followed by consultations with experts who have not previously been involved in the case under consideration.

Since Spain passed a law on euthanasia, by the end of 2024, according to the Ministry of Health, 1.123 people had ended their lives in this way.

Spain is one of nine EU countries that by law allows people with unbearable suffering to have access to assisted dying, and the criteria vary from country to country.

Euthanasia is carried out by doctors or healthcare professionals under strict conditions, by administering a lethal injection at the patient's express request, while medically assisted suicide consists of the patient taking a lethal chemical potion or medication of such effect prescribed by a doctor.