Spain‘s Health Minister has attacked Donald Trump following a report claiming that the US President has ordered a probe into the euthanasia death of gang-rape victim Noelia Castillo.
The New York Post said it had obtained a leaked cable showing the Trump administration ordering a probe into how the Spanish 25-year-old ended up choosing death at a hospital near Barcelona last Thursday.
Her father Geronimo Castillo had fought a two-year legal battle to stop the procedure with the help of a Valladolid-based ultraconservative group called Christian Lawyers.
Noelia, left paralysed after jumping from a fifth-floor in a suicide attempt in October 2022 after the sex attack, had spoken openly about the mental and physical pain she had suffered for years in a Spanish TV interview days before dying.
New reports allege that Trump officials were ordered to raise ‘serious concerns’ with Spain, over what the US claims were ‘many systematic human rights failures’.
Health Minister Monica Garcia reacted to the reports on X: ‘In the United States, thousands of people without health insurance die every year, whilst Trump supports and carries out human rights violations in Gaza and Iran.’
She posted a front page picture of the country’s leading newspaper El Mundo’s report echoing the New York Post’s story, writing: ‘Trump should stop fuelling the international far-right agenda by sticking his nose into everything.
‘Spain is a serious country, with a robust healthcare system and a framework of rights that protects and cares for everyone, including those who choose to seek assistance to die with dignity in contexts regulated by law, assessed by clinical committees and endorsed by the courts.’
Noelia smiles as she holds up a picture from her childhood taken before her life was marked by abuse and trauma
By her early twenties, Noelia had attempted to take her own life more than once, through drug overdoses and self harm
Spain’s PM Pedro Sanchez, who has been Europe’s most vociferous vocal critic of Trump over his war in Iran, has yet to comment.
The alleged cable that led to Garcia’s rant on X stated: ‘We are deeply concerned by allegations that Ms. Castillo was repeatedly sexually assaulted while under state care and that no perpetrators have been brought to justice.’
It added: ‘We are also aware of reports that Ms. Castillo expressed hesitancy to undergo euthanasia in her final hours, but that these indications were ignored.
‘This case raises serious concerns about the application of Spain’s euthanasia law, particularly in cases involving psychiatric conditions and non-terminal suffering.’
Noelia, who spoke openly about her decision to end the mental and physical pain she had suffered for years during a Spanish TV interview before her euthanasia, was alone in the room when she died at her own request, apart from the doctor administering her injections.
In an interview broadcast two days before she passed away on a programme called ‘Y Ahora Sonsoles’ on Spain’s national Antena 3 station, after the European Court of Human Rights had backed her euthanasia wish, Noelia admitted: ‘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.’
Revealing how she wanted to leave this world, she added: ‘I’ve always thought I want to die beautiful.
‘I’ll put on my prettiest dress and make-up.’
Noelia pictured learning how to walk again after her suicide attempt
Noelia’s mother (pictured) said of her daughter’s decision: ‘I do not agree, but I will always be by her side’
Noelia’s mum had confessed she wanted to be with her daughter when she closed her eyes for the last time, saying in her own TV interview: ‘We don’t agree with her but we’re with her.
‘I don’t want her to die, I want her to live. It’s horrible.’
Noelia’s life began derailing after her parents divorced when she was a child and she was already receiving psychiatric treatment as a 13-year-old.
She ended up in care and suffered two sexual assaults, the last one a gang rape by three boys in a nightclub.
The second attack, which Noelia admitted she didn’t report to police, led to her October 4, 2022, suicide attempt after several self-harm incidents when she leapt out of a fifth-floor window, leaving her with a serious and irreversible spinal cord injury.
She used a wheelchair to get around and suffered from excruciating leg and back pain which she said makes sleep difficult.
Noelia had admitted to suffering a borderline personality disorder and another compulsive obsessive one.
Her dad, with the help of the Christian Lawyers group, used her mental health issues as his main argument in his attempts to halt his daughter’s euthanasia, first in a series of Spanish courts and then in Europe.
But judges insisted her mental faculties were ‘intact’, making her dramatic decision ‘free, conscious and informed’, in line with the Spanish law on euthanasia.
Noelia said she’s ‘always felt alone’, and ‘never felt understood or empathised with’
A protester pictured with a sign reading: ‘The right to kill does not exist. #StopEuthanasia’
Outlining her despair before her euthanasia request was initially granted on July 18, 2024, and she was told it would happen on August 1 that year (before the start of her father’s legal interventions), she said on Spanish TV last week: ‘Before requesting euthanasia, I saw my world as very dark.
‘I had no goals or objectives.
‘I have always felt alone, I have never felt understood, and no one has ever empathised with me.’
Questioning her dad’s decisions which delayed her euthanasia wish, she added: ‘He has not respected my decision and never will.’
Christian Lawyers said in a statement released shortly after she died: ‘Noelia has already been euthanised.
‘At Christian Lawyers, we deeply regret her death and denounce that this case highlights the serious flaws in the euthanasia law, which does not protect the most vulnerable people.
‘We urge politicians to use her story to drive urgent changes and prevent something like this from happening again.
‘Thanks to everyone who has empathized with the family during these very difficult times.
‘You can understand that the parents are broken after years of trying to support her in her rehabilitation.’
