Noelia Castillo spent 20 months battling to die under a euthanasia law. On Thursday, Spain let her

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story involves discussion about suicide that some readers may find upsetting. If you feel you are in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the 24-hour Suicide Crisis Lifeline.

Noelia Castillo’s story was defined by pain – both physical and emotional. This overwhelming pain led the young Spaniard to request euthanasia in 2024. On Thursday, at 25 years old, that request was fulfilled and her difficult life came to an end.

“I want to leave in peace already and stop suffering, period,” Castillo said days before her death, in an interview on the Spanish news channel Antena 3.

Her case sparked intense debate in Spain, especially after the interview aired – both among those who supported her decision and among those who messaged her on social media urging her not to choose euthanasia.

In the interview, Castillo explained that her decision was rooted in a turbulent home life following her parents’ separation when she was 13. Castillo spent time in a supervised care center and was diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder.

She also recounted to her interviewer three episodes of sexual abuse: one allegedly perpetrated by an ex-partner, another in a nightclub where she said two men raped her, and a third in a bar involving three young men. She said she never reported any of them. Days after the second episode, in October 2022, she attempted suicide. She survived the attempt, but was left paraplegic and wheelchair-bound.

This became the turning point that led her to consider euthanasia.

“Sleeping is very difficult for me, and besides that, I have back and leg pain,” Castillo said. But she also emphasized that the suffering was not only physical. Before requesting euthanasia, “My world was very dark … I had no goals, no objectives, nothing,” she said.

Her euthanasia was carried out in the Sant Pere de Ribes hospital where she had been living.

Assisted suicide has been legal in Spain since June 2021. For Castillo, applying for it was only the beginning of a complex journey – mainly because her family opposed it.

Her request had been approved on July 18, 2024, by the Catalonia Guarantee and Evaluation Commission. The commission found that she met all legal requirements, as she had a “nonrecoverable clinical situation,” causing “severe dependence, pain, and chronic, disabling suffering.” All of this prevented her from living autonomously and negatively affected her daily life.

But in August of that same year, her father – advised by the ultraconservative religious group Christian Lawyers – began a legal fight to stop the process, arguing that she was incapable of making such a decision.

“He has not respected my decision and he never will,” Castillo said about her father.

From then on, her father initiated a long legal process that delayed Noelia’s euthanasia for 20 months, going through five judicial levels: a Barcelona court, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia, the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court, and the European Court of Human Rights.

None of these bodies opposed the young woman’s decision. All found that she met the requirements and was capable of deciding to die.

“I understand he’s a father, that he doesn’t want to lose a daughter,” Castillo reflected in her interview. She added that she felt confused because she did not have a close relationship with him.

“He ignores me. So why does he want me alive? To keep me in a hospital?” she said.

The battle Castillo fought ultimately enabled her to carry out her decision.

“I finally did it, and now maybe I can finally rest,” she told the Antena 3 journalist. “I can’t take this family anymore, I can’t take the pain anymore, I can’t take everything that torments me in my head.”

Castillo said goodbye to her entire family and asked that in her final moments, she be left alone.

“I don’t want anyone inside” her room, she said. “I don’t want them to see me close my eyes.”