Warning: This article contains discussion of rape and suicide which some readers may find distressing.
Before her euthanasia took place in Barcelona this week, 25-year-old Noelia Castillo Ramos delivered a final message to her family.
Ramos died on Thursday (March 26) at the Sant Pere de Ribes health center, following a prolonged legal dispute over whether the procedure should be allowed to go ahead.
Her death came after her father’s efforts to stop the euthanasia were ultimately unsuccessful.
Ramos first applied for medical assistance to end her life in 2024. The request followed her account that she had been raped twice: once by an ex-boyfriend, and later in an attack involving three boys.
After those reported assaults, she made multiple attempts to take her own life, including an incident later that year in which she jumped from a fifth-floor apartment window.
Medical reports stated that the fall left her paraplegic and living with severe, ongoing pain, with no prospect of recovery or improvement.
In 2024, a specialized expert committee in Catalonia authorized her euthanasia request and scheduled the procedure for later that year. However, her father secured a delay by arguing that Ramos had a personality disorder that affected her ability to make the decision.
That challenge came to an end in February 2026, when Spain’s Constitutional Court rejected his appeal, concluding there was “no violation of fundamental rights” and allowing the process to move forward.
“None of my family support me but the happiness of a father does not have to be above that of a daughter or above a daughter’s life. I just want to go in peace and stop suffering.”
Ramos also left a final statement for her relatives just before the euthanasia, asking them to step out of the room.
“I want to go now in peace and stop suffering.”
While she had openly opposed her father’s repeated legal attempts to prevent the procedure, her mother appeared to take a different approach in public comments.
Her mother, Yolanda Ramos, told media outlets that although she did not want her daughter to follow through, she intended to support her.
“I am not in favor of euthanasia, of course I am not in favor, but I will always be by her side until the very last moment, as long as she allows me.”
She also said she continued to hope her daughter might change her mind at the last minute.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in a mental health crisis, help is available through Mental Health America. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. You can also reach the Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741.