Spain is euthanising rape victims now

Noelia Castillo Ramos, a 25-year-old Spanish woman, died by euthanasia yesterday. Spanish law allows citizens over 18 with ‘chronic or invalidating suffering’ to receive assisted dying. Ramos, whose short life was one of unimaginable difficulty, certainly fitted the criteria.

After her parents’ separation, at age 13, Noelia was placed in the care of the Catalan government. While living in care, she was raped by her ex-boyfriend in her sleep. In 2022, she was gang raped by three boys – an event she described as a turning point in her life. Later that year, Noelia attempted to end her life by overdosing on medication. After that failed, she jumped from a fifth-floor window. The fall left her paraplegic and in constant pain. In 2024, her request to be euthanised was approved. ‘I want to go now and stop suffering, period’, she told the Spanish TV programme, Y Ahora Sonsoles.

When Noelia’s father, Geronimo Castillo, found out his daughter had been approved for an assisted death, he went to court to try to overturn the decision. He argued that his daughter’s poor mental health – she had been receiving psychiatric help and was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder – was impacting her ability to make an informed decision. The Spanish justice system considers murderers to have diminished responsibility if they are suffering from mental-health issues, but it seems this does not apply to those seeking an assisted death. Castillo’s 18-month legal battle ended in failure in March, when the European Court of Human Rights gave the green light for his daughter to be euthanised. The procedure went ahead yesterday.

The tragedy of Noelia Castillo Ramos ought to deeply unsettle us. It shows what happens when we respond to suicidal despair by affirming it – by saying to a young woman that she is right to want to end her life – instead of resisting it. Proponents of assisted dying say it is kinder to grant death in the face of immense suffering than to insist that someone keep on living. But to abandon vulnerable people at their lowest ebb is not compassion at all – it is to give up on a person who has given up on themselves.

What makes this case particularly troubling is not only the tragedy of a young woman’s premature death, but also the precedent it sets for others like her. It says that if you have faced abuse, if you are depressed or have a disability, that your life is not worth living. The state would prefer to assist you to die than to help you recover or to live as full a life as possible.

Noelia Castillo Ramos was failed throughout her short life. Those charged with her care failed to protect her from abuse. And then, when the consequences of that failure became too much for her to bear, they helped to end her life. Spain’s euthanasia laws have plumbed new depths of moral depravity.

Georgina Mumford is a content producer at spiked.