Juan Manuel de Prada fires off his piece on Noelia's EUTHANASIA
Juan Manuel de Prada's article on Noelia and euthanasia is setting social media alight: brave critique or literary pose? An analysis of the controversy.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Juan Manuel de Prada and the Noelia case: baroque rhetoric against the Leviathan
Juan Manuel de Prada's article about Noelia, the young woman who requested euthanasia after an unhappy childhood, has generated more noise for its style than for its substance. Published in ABC on 27 March 2026, the text deploys a repertoire of archaisms and grandiose metaphors —'Leviathan', 'systemic chroniclers'— to denounce how the Welfare State and the culture of death have wrecked the girl's life. But the criticism has focused on the writer's pose: a literary luxury that, according to some analyses, stays on the surface and avoids naming those actually responsible.
Prose as a shield
De Prada's baroque style is no accident. By wrapping his critique in language the average Spaniard can barely decipher —'vicissitudes', 'a grotesquely dramatic palimpsest'— he shields himself from direct rebuttal. For his detractors, that inflated rhetoric conceals a lack of courage: he denounces the abstract Leviathan but stays silent about the names of the parties, unions or institutions that embody it. It is salon literature for the Catholic bourgeoisie, not combat journalism.
The uncomfortable substance
Nevertheless, the article raises questions that unsettle the official narrative. Noelia's story —indebted or alcoholic parents, a suffering childhood, assisted death— is presented by De Prada as a systemic failure to which society responds with 'lethal compassion'. The question left hanging is whether his critique strikes at the core of the problem or remains an aesthetic exercise. Those who defend him argue that a hypertrophied Welfare State and an ideologised judiciary are real enemies, even if they are never named.
The debate reflects two camps: one applauding the sharpness of the diagnosis, the other branding De Prada a 'salon dissident'. But both agree that, beyond the flourishes, the Noelia case exposes the contradictions of a society that legalises euthanasia while abandoning the living.
Related discussions in the forum
Juan Manuel de Prada's article about Noelia, the young woman who requested euthanasia after an unhappy childhood, has generated more noise for its style than for its substance. Published in ABC on 27 March 2026, the text deploys a repertoire of archaisms and grandiose metaphors —'Leviathan', 'systemic chroniclers'— to denounce how the Welfare State and the culture of death have wrecked the girl's life. But the criticism has focused on the writer's pose: a literary luxury that, according to some analyses, stays on the surface and avoids naming those actually responsible.
Prose as a shield
De Prada's baroque style is no accident. By wrapping his critique in language the average Spaniard can barely decipher —'vicissitudes', 'a grotesquely dramatic palimpsest'— he shields himself from direct rebuttal. For his detractors, that inflated rhetoric conceals a lack of courage: he denounces the abstract Leviathan but stays silent about the names of the parties, unions or institutions that embody it. It is salon literature for the Catholic bourgeoisie, not combat journalism.
The uncomfortable substance
Nevertheless, the article raises questions that unsettle the official narrative. Noelia's story —indebted or alcoholic parents, a suffering childhood, assisted death— is presented by De Prada as a systemic failure to which society responds with 'lethal compassion'. The question left hanging is whether his critique strikes at the core of the problem or remains an aesthetic exercise. Those who defend him argue that a hypertrophied Welfare State and an ideologised judiciary are real enemies, even if they are never named.
The debate reflects two camps: one applauding the sharpness of the diagnosis, the other branding De Prada a 'salon dissident'. But both agree that, beyond the flourishes, the Noelia case exposes the contradictions of a society that legalises euthanasia while abandoning the living.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (6 replies).
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