Spanish woman who died through euthanasia failed by state, say critics. 16 hours ago. Guy HedgecoeMadrid. Y Ahora Sonsoles (Atresmedia Television). Warning: This story contains references to sexual assault and suicide. The death by euthanasia of a 25-year-old Spanish woman after a protracted legal battle with her father has triggered debate about the role of the state in caring for her and why it took so long to implement her wish to end her life.. Noelia Castillo, who had been left paraplegic due to injuries suffered when she tried to take her own life in 2022, died on Thursday evening at a Barcelona hospital.. The Catalan regional government had granted her the right to assisted dying in 2024.. However, the process was suspended at the last moment after legal objections raised by her father, backed by campaign group Christian Lawyers.. The case has received enormous attention in Spain, with Christian Lawyers (Abogados Cristianos) attempting to block her death until the last moment.. After an 18-month legal battle, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled this week in Noelia Castillo’s favour and her death was eventually confirmed late on Thursday.. Castillo had spent much of her childhood in care homes and had recounted the impact on her mental health of her father’s problems with alcohol and of being sexually assaulted by an ex-boyfriend and also by several men in a nightclub.. In a TV interview this week, she said nobody in her family had supported her decision to die by euthanasia, and her father “hasn’t respected my decision and never will”.. “I want to go in peace now and stop suffering,” she told Antena 3 TV the day before she died.. Her mother had disagreed with her decision but joined her at the Sant Camil Barcelona clinic.. A former friend of Castillo, Carla Rodríguez, tried to enter the hospital to persuade her to change her mind, but told Spanish media that police had barred her from entering.. British pianist James Rhodes, who lives in Spain, issued an appeal to Castillo via social media to reconsider and offered to pay her medical costs until she felt “able to take this decision from a slightly more tranquil place”.. Christian Lawyers warned that her case had underlined failures in her care.. “For a girl who obviously has had a very tough life, which we all regret, the only thing that could be offered to her by the healthcare system is death,” said José María Fernández, of Christian Lawyers.. The opposition conservative People’s Party (PP), which voted against a 2021 euthanasia law, had a similar response.. “The institutions that should have protected Noelia failed her,” wrote PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo on social media. He added: “I refuse to believe that the state did not have the tools to give her care.”. In a statement, the Catholic Church, which is close to the PP, said that Castillo’s story “reflects an accumulation of personal suffering and institutional failures”.. However, other observers have taken issue
