Euthanasia in Spain: Whose life is it anyway?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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This is the documentary from the BBC World Service, This Week from Spain.
I'm Esperanza Scribano with Assignment.
And I'm Linda Presley.
And this was Noelia Castillo Ramos in an interview with Y Ahora Son Soles on the Spanish network Antena 3.
I'm 25 years old, she says, and I have just four days left.
Because on the 26th of March, I'm having euthanasia.
When this fragile young woman was injected with a lethal drug on that March evening in a health clinic in Catalonia, the death she chose became headline news in Spain and around the world. In this week's assignment, we're exploring what's happened since Noelia's euthanasia, how the legal ground is shifting in Spain so that an adult's request for assisted dying can be challenged by their loved ones, and how Noelia's death is being used to raise questions about organ donation in euthanasia cases in Spain.
So who was Noelia Castillo Ramos? A troubled teenager with a history of problematic mental health, Noelia was in and out of state care after her parents separated. Then, when she was 21, she was attacked in a gang rape. Noelia attempted to take her own life. She jumped from a fifth-floor balcony. It left her paraplegic, debilitated and in pain. 18 months later, she formally asked... for euthanasia.
In July 2024, the commission overseeing Spain's right to die law in Catalonia approved Noelia's request. It verified she met the legal criteria, that she suffered from a serious incurable disease or a serious chronic and disabling condition causing intolerable physical or psychological suffering, and that she was capable of making the decision. In Spain, an applicant for euthanasia doesn't have to be terminally ill. But Noelia's father didn't agree with his daughter's decision. He used the courts to halt the process and keep her alive until his final appeal failed. Noelia's father was represented by the Fundación Española de Abogados Cristianos, the conservative Christian lawyers' foundation that's campaigned against abortion, LGBT-themed books in schools and is now leading the charge against Spain's euthanasia law.
Polonia Castellanos is its president.
What we said, together with Noelia's family, her father, is that she didn't have capacity to choose euthanasia because she had borderline personality disorder. In the courts, the only thing they said was she could decide for herself. We were fighting to say she wasn't capable of that.
But Noelia herself as well, she testified before the court that this is what she wanted to do, that this was her wish.
Yes, she wanted to end her life, just as she had when she jumped from the fifth floor. It's similar to someone with anorexia saying they want to be thinner. These are people whose judgment is impaired by a mental disorder or illness, which is what happened to Noelia. And until the law is repealed, it's essential a person is obliged to receive treatment before undergoing euthanasia.
We don't know what Noelia's treatment regime was. We don't have her medical records. We do know that every court challenge by her father resulted in Noelia's right to autonomy being upheld. That is, she could decide for herself as a competent adult after she was medically assessed to fulfil the criteria for euthanasia in Spain. Running alongside the drama of Noelia's euthanasia, but rarely in the headlines, is the story of a man in his mid-fifties, again in Catalonia, whose death has been postponed repeatedly. Francesc Aúche is still alive.
I have a lot of pain, more mental than physical, but people don't see this pain. They think it doesn't exist.
It's not sad.
Francesc was speaking to Spanish media Informativos Telecinco and Antena 3 Noticias last year. He's had two heart attacks and four strokes and struggles with his speech.
I don't want to continue suffering what I've suffered. I was me and now I'm not that person anymore. I want to go and they won't let me, he said.
Francesc's request to die was approved by Catalonia's Euthanasia Review Commission back in July 2024, the same month Noelia got the go-ahead.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–7:03
2
Who was Noelia Castillo and why did her euthanasia spark national debate?
7:03–14:32
3
What legal criteria allowed Noelia’s euthanasia to be approved in Catalonia?
14:32–16:52
4
How did Noelia’s father and Abogados Cristianos challenge her capacity to decide?
16:52–28:22
5
How has the Supreme Court decision affected Francesc Aúche’s euthanasia case?
28:22–31:17