«The Spanish government is illegitimate, covering up its corruption scandals by killing its citizens and deceiving them with laws like this euthanasia law. And allowing serious risks of profit from organ transplants to hide behind euthanasia practices».

Alongside the parents of Noelia Castillo Ramos, the twenty-five-year-old paralyzed woman suffering from psychiatric disorder who requested and obtained euthanasia after a legal battle currently inflaming Spain, is the association Christian Lawyers.

Polonia Castellanos (in the photo below) is the president of the association that stood by the father and mother of the young woman in an attempt to snatch her from the jaws of death, which occurred on Thursday, March 26 in a hospital in Barcelona. Nuova Bussola Quotidiana interviewed her.

Counselor, Noelia is dead, what do you feel facing this tragedy?

Deep sorrow, we tried with her family to save her in a legal battle lasting two years. It hurts to think that she could have been saved, but we also feel profound pain because the State abandoned her. And fear because all families with mentally ill relatives can find themselves in the same condition. It is terrible to think that a person with mental infirmity could undergo this treatment. 

What was your legal battle based on?
We requested that medical treatment be provided. It should be known that in the past the State forced medical treatment on a murderer and terrorist who had killed 25 people. It is a shame that the Spanish government treats a terrorist better than a 25-year-old girl who had a mental disorder.

Why did Noelia's father turn to you Christian Lawyers?
The father sought us out because we recently followed other euthanasia cases, which were resolved positively. Cases of people with depression who had obtained access to the euthanasia program, but we managed to stop them and in the end they were convinced to live by pursuing medical treatment. Unfortunately with Noelia we did not succeed.

What did the father ask you?
The father wanted us to help him save his daughter. Because he understood, as we all do, that a girl with a 74% mental infirmity could not decide on something as important as her life.

Did you have the opportunity to speak with Noelia in these months?
We, in the last month, spoke mainly with the family, the father, mother and sister, who were all against her euthanasia.

Is it true that in recent days Noelia would have decided to give up euthanasia, but the hospital dissuaded her to convince her to die?
This is a detail that the mother told us, namely that when we filed precautionary measures the hospital told her that all the organs were already committed.

Committed for what?
For transplant. But beyond this information I must say something.

What?


We insisted on denouncing the conflict of interest of people who decide on euthanasia and who at the same time deal with transplants and profit from them.

Can you explain better?
We discovered that people directly interested in deciding on euthanasia are at the same time on the organ transplant commission. We believe this is a conflict of interest and that if you are part of a commission that decides on euthanasia you cannot deal with transplants.

The mother also said that many people offered to help Noelia live, there was a great chain of solidarity. Only the State was deaf to these requests. Why?
It is remarkable the generosity of many citizens from all over the world, who tried to help Noelia by encouraging her, praying for her and offering to help her economically; they offered her money to help her pay for an apartment, to have a car. But the State under whose authority Noelia was, preferred to kill her because it was more economically convenient.

The case of Noelia aroused strong polarization throughout Spanish public opinion so much that several people initially in favor of euthanasia changed their minds…
Exactly so. They understood that euthanasia is a deception. When in 2021 euthanasia was introduced by law in Spain, the Sanchez government said it was a very protective law. We were told it was for very extreme cases, but it was with Noelia's case that citizens saw that we were being deceived, that euthanasia is designed for the most defenseless and weakest people.

Why?
Noelia's case did not fall within any of the cases provided for by the law because we are facing a person with mental infirmity who had her whole life ahead, because she did not have degenerative suffering. So it is outside the law: she was killed. And the law is a deception.

What is your opinion of the Government's euthanasia policies after this tragedy?
The euthanasia policies of the Spanish government are the policies of a tremendously corrupt government, which prefers to save money on citizens to continue financing prostitution, continue channeling money to its own family members and pay luxury trips for its own ministers. It seems to me that it is an illegitimate government that abandons its citizens in order to use money destining it to its corruption scandals.

And the Church? What role did it play in this matter?
The Spanish Episcopal Conference indeed issued a statement trying to invite finding another path that was not euthanasia.

In light of the very strong emotional reaction of the people, what can be done now concretely?
In Spain we are beginning to mobilize and what we must do with this murderous law, this criminal law, is repeal it and ensure that every person who requests euthanasia first receives treatment. In a century like ours that is so advanced in medicine we cannot allow suppressing the life of a person when there are cures. And it can be saved.

Your struggle is relentless. Today (yesterday ed.) you were in court in Madrid to defend priests. Is there a risk of persecution of Catholics in Spain?
Yes, today we had a judgment against a far-left politician (Pablo Echenique Robba, former Podemos deputy ed.) who attacked priests on X saying that all priests are pedophiles and should be deported. It is what we are now used to because with this government we have seen how it kills its citizens. Attacking Catholics is an opportunity to divert attention from corruption scandals. It is clear that Catholics in Spain are very persecuted.