In the final days of her life, 25-year-old Noelia Castillo Ramos spoke with a clarity shaped by years of pain, trauma, and irreversible loss. Her message was simple: she wanted to “leave in peace.”
The young woman from Barcelona died after being granted euthanasia, following a legal process that reached both the European Court of Human Rights and Spain’s Constitutional Court of Spain. The decision came after her case drew attention to the limits of endurance – both physical and psychological.
In 2022, while living in a state-supervised centre for vulnerable young people, Ramos was brutally gang raped. The assault left deep psychological scars, compounding an already fragile mental health history. According to her family, she had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and had spent periods of her life in institutional care, relying on the Spanish mental healthcare system.
In the aftermath, overwhelmed by trauma, she attempted to end her life by jumping from a fifth-floor window. She survived – but the fall caused a severe spinal cord injury, leaving her paralysed from the waist down.
From that point on, her life was marked by constant physical pain and profound disability. Reports also describe a worsening mental health condition, including depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and borderline personality disorder.
Her parents spent years trying to prevent what they saw as an irreversible choice. The legal battle reached its peak in February 2026, when Spain’s Constitutional Court of Spain rejected her father’s appeal, ruling there was “no violation of fundamental rights” and allowing the procedure to proceed.
The decision was grounded in Spain’s Organic Law on the Regulation of Euthanasia, introduced in 2021, which permits assisted death in cases of serious and prolonged suffering. Since the law came into force, hundreds of people have sought assistance in ending their lives.
Her mother, Yolanda Ramos, remained by her side despite opposing the decision. “I do not agree, but I will always be by her side,” she said.
In an interview just days before her death, Ramos spoke openly about her decision, describing it not as uncertainty, but as conviction shaped over time.
“I was very clear about it from the beginning.”
“None of my family is in favour of euthanasia. Obviously, because I’m another pillar of the family. I’m leaving, and you’re staying here with all the pain. But I think, all the pain I’ve suffered over the years… I just want to leave in peace now and stop suffering, full stop.”
She also reflected on the emotional conflict surrounding her choice: “And a father’s, or a mother’s, or a sister’s happiness doesn’t have to come before a daughter’s happiness or sadness of a daughter’s life.”