Noelia will receive euthanasia today after more than a year and a half of waiting

BarcelonaNoelia, the 25-year-old girl who has been subjected to a long judicial ordeal since August 2024 awaiting the possibility of resorting to dignified death, will finally receive euthanasia this Thursday. The young woman's request, affected by paraplegia, was suspended more than a year and a half ago following a legal challenge by her father, represented by the ultra-Catholic group Advocats Cristians. Throughout this time, she has maintained her will to die: "I want to leave now in peace and stop suffering, period. The happiness of a father, a mother, or a sister cannot be above the happiness of a daughter," she stated two days ago in an interview on Antena 3. As a protest, in front of the Camilo wheel in San Pedro de Ribes, at the exact place and time scheduled for assisted death.

The news of the favorable outcome for Noelia broke this Tuesday, the same day the European justice's opinion was known on whether the young woman's euthanasia procedure should be provisionally halted. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled against suspending the girl's dignified death as requested by the ultra-Catholic group. However, the European justice's decision was not essential to proceed with assisted death because the judicial approval for Noelia's euthanasia was already firm, and the girl also has the medical approval of all the professionals who have treated her. The ECHR's response, however, implies that the final resolution of the court cannot be awaited to proceed with the assisted death of the young woman, who became paraplegic as a result of a suicide attempt.

Before reaching Strasbourg, attempts to halt Noelia's assisted death had already been met with a "no" from the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, in addition to the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) and the Barcelona court that initially handled the case. The Constitutional Court's rejection meant closing the last attempt by Abogados Cristianos within the Spanish jurisdiction to halt Noelia's euthanasia. The fundamental legal debate that this case has brought to the table, and which is also raised by the case of Francesc, 54 years old, is whether the relatives of an adult patient in full faculties can intervene judicially to halt an euthanasia procedure that already has medical approval.

The Generalitat has a clear answer and has sided with Noelia. In statements to Catalunya Ràdio this Wednesday, the Minister of Health, Olga Pané, lamented that for almost 20 months, "the will of relatives has been prioritized over the affected person" and that, as a consequence of a judicial system that seeks to be "guarantor," the young woman's "suffering has been prolonged." "Prolonging this person's suffering like this seems unwise to me," stated the minister.

Two more open cases

Christian Lawyers, to whom this Wednesday a court in Barcelona denied their last attempt for urgent interim measures to stop the euthanasia, assures that it will continue Noelia's procedure before the European justice system to try to get it to recognize an alleged violation of the father's right to effective judicial protection. In fact, the ECtHR does not consider the fundamental arguments of the case in its resolution, but rather later. Legal sources indicate that the affected person's death will not end the procedure, but rather the court will rule nonetheless – even if it takes time – to determine if there has been any violation of human rights as argued by the ultra-Catholic group.

However, the ultra-Catholic group maintains two other procedures open against Noelia's euthanasia. On the one hand, it has filed a lawsuit against the doctor and the forensic expert who "feigned disagreement to force the intervention of the full Commission of Guarantee and Evaluation of Catalonia" to decide with more guarantees on the girl's euthanasia request. In parallel, the group of lawyers has reported several members of this Commission and also former Health Minister Josep Maria Argimon, to whom they attribute an alleged crime of prevarication for allegedly having "links incompatible with the impartiality required" to be part of this commission. Specifically, they say, "being related to pro-euthanasia activist entities or organizations interested in obtaining organs".