18-Year Sentence Upheld for Murder of ALS Patient in Japan

Osaka, Nov. 25 (Jiji Press)--A Japanese high court Monday upheld a lower court ruling sentencing doctor Yoshikazu Okubo to 18 years in prison for murdering an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patient at the request of the victim in 2019.

Presiding Judge Hidenori Nagai at Osaka High Court dismissed the defense’s appeal to acquit the 46-year-old doctor, backing the decision made by Kyoto District Court in a lay judge trial.

During the high court trial, the defense again argued that it is against the right to pursue happiness under the Constitution to hold the defendant criminally responsible for the act to realize the “peaceful death” chosen by the patient.

The judge said there is no evidence that the defendant actually examined the patient, adding that it cannot be considered a sincere act and that “there is no room to recognize (it was) socially appropriate.”

According to the ruling, Okubo conspired with former doctor Naoki Yamamoto, 47, in November 2019 to administer a drug at the request of the then 51-year-old ALS patient at her home in Kyoto, causing her death from acute drug poisoning.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]