Before opting for euthanasia in Spain, gang-rape survivor Noelia Castillo shared a poignant farewell with her loved ones, requesting their departure from her hospital room prior to her passing on Thursday.
“I wish to leave in peace and end my suffering,” she expressed, as reported by the Spanish news outlet Antenna 3.
Despite her family’s efforts to persuade the 25-year-old to reconsider, they remained by her side until 30 minutes before she received a lethal injection, the outlet detailed.
Castillo requested that her family exit the room before a doctor administered three injections, accompanied by a sedative, in a process lasting approximately 15 minutes.
In her last interview, Castillo explained her desire for her family to be absent during her final moments. “I don’t want them to witness me closing my eyes,” she stated.
Castillo revealed she endured severe pain after becoming paralyzed from the waist down following a suicide attempt in 2022. She also recounted enduring years of sexual abuse, including a gang rape, during an interview.
Castillo’s death by choice was delayed for years after her father waged a lengthy legal battle against her decision — enlisting the help of Abogados Cristianos (Christian Lawyers). She was initially approved for euthanasia in 2024 after the right to die was legalized in Spain in 2021 but had to endure rulings from five different courts.
“Why does he want me alive, just to keep me in a hospital?” Castillo said Wednesday in an interview with Antena 3. “Not all parents are prepared for this. He keeps telling me he understands me, but he doesn’t.”
Her mother and sister also opposed her decision.
Noelia’s mother, Yolanda, said in an interview that she was devastated by her daughter’s decision, but wanted to be there when the procedure happened.
“I’ve been praying and thinking… hoping that at the last moment she’ll say ‘I regret it’,” she said.
Critics, including Catholic bishops, have said her euthanasia meant that society failed her, according to EuroNews.
The bishops of the Subcommission for the Family and the Defence of Life said her death reflected “an accumulation of personal suffering and institutional shortcomings that calls the whole of society into question.”
Christian Lawyers agreed.
“If deliberately caused death is the solution to problems, then anything goes,” the group said.
Supporters of the group had gathered outside the Barcelona hospital, with some leaving flowers at the entrance.
Campaigners had held onto hope “until the very last moment” that she would change her mind, the group’s president, José María Fernández, told reporters.
Noelia’s case is “a failure of the healthcare system,” he added.
Luis Argüello, president of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference added: “A doctor cannot act as the executioner for a death sentence, however legal, empowering or compassionate it may appear.”
