The case of 25-year-old Noelia Castillo from Spain is deeply distressing.

The young woman chose euthanasia after a suicide attempt that followed multiple sexual assaults, which ultimately left her paraplegic.

What has caused a wave of outrage against Spain’s healthcare system is the fact that there was no serious attempt to treat her psychological issues but instead she was offered the “option” of assisted suicide and her decision was encouraged.

It has been reported that in the final stage, it is debatable whether she would even be allowed to change her mind with reports saying her organs were scheduled to be transplanted to patients and the operations could not be canceled.

In her final interview, conducted shortly before her assisted death at a specialized facility in Barcelona, Castillo disclosed that she had been sexually assaulted on three separate occasions.

The first assault was carried out by a former partner with whom she had been in a relationship for four years. The second incident took place at a nightclub, where two men allegedly attempted to sexually assault her.

According to her account, the third attack occurred in October 2022 which escalated into a gang rape involving three illegal immigrant perpetrators.

On October 4, 2022, after consuming cocaine, Castillo jumped from the fifth floor of a building, an act that resulted in her becoming paraplegic.

Her request for euthanasia was approved after medical assessments confirmed that she was suffering from paraplegia, chronic depressive symptoms, adjustment disorder with anxiety and depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and borderline personality disorder.

However, according to Spanish law, to request euthanasia, an individual must be of legal age and be both mentally capable and fully conscious at the time of the request. Now critics of the Spanish justice that allowed the attempted suicide to take place, argue that the fact that she had all these psychological problems means that she was not in fact mentally capable to take such a decision.

Her final words

Castillo chose to spend her final moments alone, without the presence of her family. According to Spanish broadcaster Antena 3, she shared her last words with her loved ones before asking them to leave the room at the center where she received the lethal injection on Thursday.

“I want to leave now in peace and stop suffering,” she reportedly said.

Her family continued trying to try to persuade her to reconsider up until the very end, however, her father and her best friend were not granted access to be with her.

In that same final interview, Castillo explained her decision not to have her family present during her last moments, stating: “I don’t want them to see me close my eyes.”