‘I want to change my mind’: A friend’s tears for gang rape victim who died from euthanasia, aged 25 | World News

A friend of a gang rape victim who died by euthanasia showed up at a Spanish hospital an hour before her death, hoping to convince her to live.

Warning: This article contains disturbing content.

Noelia Castillo Ramos, 25, died due to euthanasia at the Barcelona care facility where he lives on Thursday evening.

She was raped twice, once by her ex-boyfriend and the second time by three boys in 2022, after which she jumped from a fifth-floor window of an apartment building in an attempt to end her own life.

The fall left him paralyzed from the waist down, and he suffered from severe, chronic and disabling pain with no possibility of improvement, according to his medical records.

Noelia requested euthanasia in 2024, but her father blocked the procedure and took the case to the European Court of Human Rights, which was rejected earlier this month.

Read more: Gang rape victim dies via euthanasia after two year legal battle

Euthanasia is scheduled for 5pm on Thursday. An hour earlier, Carla Rodriguez, who claims to be Noelia’s best friend, arrived at a residential care hospital in Barcelona and asked to see Noelia, hoping to change her mind.

A cordon had been put in place to prevent dozens of people who had come to protest Noelia’s euthanasia from accessing the facility and disrupting the procedure. The security guard also denied his friend access.

“I wanted to try to convince him to change his mind,” a tearful Ms Rodriguez told Spanish media Okdiario.

Ms Rodriguez said she and Noelia grew up together and had been classmates at a local school. They lost contact “when Noelia was transferred to another care facility”.

She learned of Noelia’s decision to die in the news and hoped to convince her friend to live by telling her about the “wave of affection and solidarity” on social media, where many commented on Noelia’s case.

“Noelia has been through so much,” Ms Rodriguez said through tears. He left a handwritten letter for Noelia’s mother, asking to see his friend and offering support.

‘I want to die alone’

Noelia told the story on a Spanish TV program Y Ahora Sonsole in his only interview that he wanted to be alone at the time of his death.

“I told them that the family could come to say goodbye, but not when they were going to give me the injection,” he said.

She also voiced her desire to “die looking beautiful, I want to die beautiful”, adding that she would wear the prettiest dress and put on makeup.

Noelia intended to take four photographs with her at her death: one of her paintings was a portrait of her mother, one of her childhood puppy, another from her first day of school, and a fourth from her childhood, which she said reflected the “happy” moments of her life.

“I want to leave now in peace and stop suffering, period,” he said, explaining that he had been “very clear” about his desire to die from the start.

While her mother, Yolanda “Yoli” Ramos, told a Spanish television station earlier this week that she hoped her daughter would change her mind, she promised to be by her side “until the end.”

Noelia has been undergoing psychiatric treatment since she was 13 years old, when her parents separated. He was eventually diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD).

Her father witnessed her suicide attempt in October 2022, but Noelia said he didn’t “feel sorry for her anymore” after Noelia filed a lawsuit to stop her euthanasia.

Noelia’s father fought against euthanasia for two years

His euthanasia request was initially granted by a special expert committee in Catalonia in July 2024, with the procedure scheduled for August 2, 2024, but his father has since blocked it.

Geronimo Castillo, backed by the ultra-conservative advocacy group Abogados Cristianos or Christian Lawyers, argued that Noelia’s mental illness interfered with her ability to decide to end her life.

During a legal battle that lasted nearly two years, he took the case to Spanish courts until the highest court rejected his arguments in February. Castillo appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, but his request for interim measures to halt Noelia’s euthanasia was rejected on March 10, according to the newspaper El Pais.

As a last resort, Noelia’s legal team on Wednesday asked the investigative court investigating Noelia’s medical legal team to take “urgent preventive measures” to stop her euthanasia, but the judge rejected the request due to lack of jurisdiction.

Members of the advocacy group Christian Lawyers were among those protesting Noelia’s euthanasia outside the facility.

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can contact Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK.

Alternatively, you can call the Mind support line on 0300 102 1234, or the NHS on 111.

In the US, call your local Samaritans branch or 1 (800) 273-TALK.