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Gang-rape victim Noelia Castillo’s father had battled for years to stop her from dying by euthanasia — before finally losing out to the power of the courts.
Geronimo Castillo, supported by a group called Christian Lawyers, argued that his 25-year-old daughter’s mental illness impaired her ability to decide to end her own life.
He also accused the Spanish state of “abandoning” his daughter by offering death instead of further psychiatric treatment.
His daughter acknowledged how much her death would pain her friends and family — especially her father — in a final interview before she was euthanized Thursday
“None of my family is in favour of euthanasia. But what about all the pain I’ve suffered during all these years?” she said.
“The happiness of a father, a mother, or a sister cannot be more important than the life of a daughter,” she maintained defiantly.
Noelia launched her euthanasia process in April 2024, almost two years after she was paralyzed when she attempted suicide by jumping off a building — which her dad had witnessed, she said.
“My father saw me fall and couldn’t do anything. But after everything he’s done, I don’t feel sorry for him anymore,” she told Y Ahora Sonsoles in a final interview before her death.
“He hasn’t respected my decision and he never will,” she added.
She told her interviewer that the suicide attempt came days after three men assaulted her at an entertainment center.
Noelia also said she had been assaulted by a previous boyfriend and survived another attempted assault.
Her euthanasia was first approved by a medical board in Catalonia in July 2024 but in August, a day before the scheduled procedure, a Barcelona court accepted her father’s petition to postpone it.
The case moved through multiple courts in Spain throughout 2025 before, in January 2026, the Spanish Supreme Court upheld Noelia’s right to euthanasia, rejecting her father’s appeal.
In February, the Constitutional Court of Spain rejected a further appeal, stating there was “no violation of fundamental rights.”
On Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rejected a final request for interim measures to stop the procedure.
A Barcelona judge denied a last-minute emergency injunction on Thursday, and Noelia received life-ending medication at 6:00 p.m. local time.
Noelia’s suicide attempt left her paraplegic and in a state of constant, “unbearable” physical and psychological pain, and she argued that under Spanish law, she met the criteria of having a “serious and incurable” condition and was mentally capable of deciding to end her life.
Geronimo argued that his daughter’s history of psychiatric conditions—specifically borderline personality disorder and OCD—meant she lacked the “mental capacity” to make a truly free and informed decision.
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