Spain minister blasts U.S. ‘interference’ over woman’s euthanasia

Spain's embassy stands in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, May 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)

MADRID - Spain’s health minister slammed U.S. “interference” on Thursday after an official urged an investigation into the euthanasia of a paraplegic woman whose long legal battle with her father captured attention.

Noelia Castillo, 25, underwent the procedure last week in the European country, one of few nations to allow euthanasia, legalised under a 2021 law with strict criteria.

She had originally sought assistance to die in 2024, having become paraplegic after throwing herself from the fifth floor of a building in a 2022 suicide attempt.

But her father’s legal challenge halted the euthanasia. He said his daughter did not meet the law’s requirements, including being sound of mind and the presence of unbearable physical or psychological suffering.

• READ MORE: 25-year-old Noelia Castillo dies by legal euthanasia in case that drew national spotlight in Spain
• READ MORE: Father fights daughter’s euthanasia bid in Spanish court

The objections initiated a drawn-out legal battle in the first case of its kind in Spain, ending at Europe’s top rights court, which also rejected the father’s challenge.

On Wednesday, U.S. official Riley Barnes, the assistant secretary of state for human rights, said it was “imperative” Noelia’s case was investigated, adding that she “was failed in life”.

Far-left Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia reacted on Thursday to the U.S. embassy in Madrid reaffirming Barnes’s message, writing on social media: “We will not allow disinformation to feed interference.”

“Spain is a serious and sovereign country, with one of the world’s best health systems, legislation that guarantees rights, professional clinical committees and the backing of the European Court of Human Rights,” she said.

• READ MORE: 3 days before his medically assisted death, this Alberta man is reflecting on ‘his right to die’
• READ MORE: ‘Died with dignity’: Friend says MAID recipient donated organs, had send off he wanted

Reacting to press reports that the U.S. would investigate, Garcia had on Wednesday also told President Donald Trump in an X post to “stop feeding the international extremist agenda by poking his nose everywhere”.

An AFP investigation found that disinformation surged on social media around the euthanasia, wrongly questioning Noelia’s eligibility, accusing the Spanish state of “abandoning” her or linking the procedure to organ donation.

The U.S.’s and Spain’s leftist government have clashed repeatedly since Trump’s return to office, notably on higher NATO defence spending and the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.

• READ MORE: Trump threatens to cut off trade with Spain after it disallowed U.S. use of joint bases in Iran war
• READ MORE: Spain’s government denies co-operating with U.S. operations in Mideast, contradicting White House