Kyoto District Court Sentences Physician to 18 Years in Prison for Killing Patient with ALS 

From Jiji, Kyodo & Barrier Free Japan

March 5 2024

KYOTO – The trial of Yoshikazu Okubo (45), who was charged with commission murder and murder for killing a patient with the incurable disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) by administering drugs at her request has concluded. 

The Kyoto District Court handed down the verdict on March 5th. Presiding Judge Hiroshi Kawakami rejected the defense’s claim of innocence and sentenced him to 18 years in prison (23 years in prison was originally sought), stating that “social appropriateness cannot be recognized at all.” He read out the reasons for the judgment and then delivered the main sentence.

The defendant Okubo admitted to the charges of commissioned murder and claimed that he had done it to fulfill (the patient’s) wishes, but Presiding Judge Kawakami pointed out that  the accused had administered a drug to the patient to kill her after receiving the 1.3 million yen fee. Kawakami also pointed out that the drug was administered within 15 minutes. He concluded, “It is difficult to imagine that he truly cared for the victim.”

Furthermore, even if there are cases in which it is not appropriate to charge a commission of murder in response to a request from a patient who is nearing the end of his or her life, there is no other option and it is necessary at least to carry out thorough treatment and tests. mentioned. Kawakami also rejected the defense side’s claim that Okubo tried to realize the “peaceful death” chosen by the victim with terminal ALS and that accusing him was counter to the right to pursue happiness stipulated in the Constitution.

According to the ruling, in November 2019, Okubo conspired with former doctor Naoki Yamamoto (46) to administer drugs to a female ALS patient, Yuri Hayashi (51) at her home in Kyoto City, causing her to suffer from acute symptoms. She died from drug poisoning. In March 2011, he conspired with defendant Yamamoto and others to somehow murder the defendant’s father, Yasushi (then 77), in an apartment in Tokyo. Yamamoto was sentenced to two years and six months in prison last December for conspiring with Okubo for the consensual killing of Hayashi.