Several Spanish Catholic bishops have issued blistering rebukes of gang-rape victim Noelia Castillo’s highly publicized euthanasia death — saying it’s a sad reflection of the current state of society.
“We have all failed as a society,” said José Mazuelos Pérez, the bishop of the Canary Islands, EuroNews reported.
He said Spain’s right-to-die law, passed in 2021, was “another step towards a culture of death, throwing in the towel on the humanization of medicine.
Religious groups gather outside the medical center where 25-year-old Noelia Castillo died after receiving euthanasia in Sant Pere de Ribes, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, on March 26, 2026. NurPhoto via Getty Images“There is a desire to require the doctor to end Noelia’s life, when a doctor’s mission is to cure and, if they cannot cure, to accompany and relieve,” he continued.
Castillo, 25, opted to legally kill herself Thursday following years of pain — after a suicide attempt left her paralyzed from the waist down. The young woman — whose own father vehemently opposed her choice to die by euthanasia — had been traumatized by multiple sexual assaults, including a gang rape by three men.
“I want to go now and stop suffering, period. None of my family is in favor of euthanasia. But what about all the pain I’ve suffered during all these years?” she said in an interview with Spanish Antena 3 program “Y Ahora Sonsoles.”
Noelia Castillo with her mother, Yolanda. antena3Castillo was approved for assisted suicide in 2024, but the approval was challenged by her father, who was supported by the conservative Spanish religious group Abogados Cristianos (Christian Lawyers).
Here’s the latest on Noelia Castillo, the paraplegic gang-rape victim who died of euthanasia
- Trump admin to investigate euthanasia death of gang rape victim, scolds Spain for ‘human rights failures’
- Dad’s final act after fighting gang-raped daughter’s attempts to die by euthanasia
- New video shows Noelia Castillo’s father cheering her on as she tried to walk before her assisted suicide
- Noelia Castillo’s dad battled for years to try to stop her death while accusing state of ‘abandoning’ her
The bishops of the Subcommission for the Family and the Defence of Life said her death reflected “an accumulation of personal suffering and institutional shortcomings that calls the whole of society into question.”
People protest at the entrance of the Sant Camil hospital on March 26, 2026, in Sant Pere de Ribes, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Europa Press via Getty ImagesChristian Lawyers agreed.
“If deliberately caused death is the solution to problems, then anything goes,” the group said.
Luis Argüello, president of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference added: “A doctor cannot act as the executioner for a death sentence, however legal, empowering or compassionate it may appear.”






