NOELIA, FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF BIOETHICS

By Elena Postigo

Bioethics Expert

Yesterday I was asked to say something about the #Noelia case from the perspective of #Bioethics. I confess that her story has deeply moved me. It is the story of a young woman, the daughter of divorced parents facing difficulties, who was taken into the care of Social Services and placed in a juvenile center. There, she suffered a gang rape and did not receive the psychological care or the human support she needed. After a failed suicide attempt, she was left in a wheelchair, which further deepened her suffering. Her story exposes the deepest fractures in our system: a victim of institutional abandonment, left completely alone in the face of pain. Now, her request for assistance in dying is presented as an act of freedom, when in reality it expresses the despair of someone who was never welcomed nor treated as she deserved.

We are not facing a case of #euthanasia, but rather of #assisted_suicide. Noelia does not suffer from a terminal illness, but from a profound depression stemming from unresolved trauma. Even so, the law allows this door to be opened without distinguishing between irreversible physical suffering and psychological suffering that can be treated and alleviated. This constitutes a very serious failure that sets a precedent: a norm that today is applied to those who could recover their lives if they were to receive appropriate help, therapy, and accompaniment.

Noelia’s life is valuable, even if she does not perceive or recognize it. #Human_dignity does not depend on suffering nor on autonomy understood as self-sufficiency. It arises from the unique value of each person, from their need for relationships, care, and love. However, the law, instead of offering real compassion, ends up legitimizing the renunciation of life by those who most need support and hope.

Noelia does not need the State to offer her death; she needs someone to restore meaning, support, and the possibility of healing. In my view, what is happening to her is not an expression of freedom, but rather the reflection of a profound collective failure. When life hurts, what is truly human is to care, to accompany, and to sustain—not to kill.

It pains me to see a society that can offer only this outcome to a 25-year-old young woman—an adult and conscious individual, yet with wounds that remain open and deep. I feel immense compassion for Noelia, a compassion that should be translated into presence, accompaniment, and care, not into authorization to die. That the State contemplates assisted suicide for such a young person seems to me a grave error and, above all, a moral defeat. Yes, the euthanasia law permits it, and Strasbourg upholds her decision, but not everything that is legal is necessarily ethical or truly humane.

These words will be of no use.All my affection goes to her and her family in these very difficult moments.