Doctor’s 18 Year-Term for Consensual Killing of ALS Patient Upheld

By Barrier Free Japan, extract from Jiji, Kyodo 

November 25 2024

OSAKA – The Osaka High Court on Monday upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced a doctor, Yoshikazu Okubo, aged 46, to 18 years in prison for the consensual killing of a woman, Yuri Hayashi, 51, who had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a rare neurological disease also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, in 2019 in western Japan.

The defense for 46-year-old Yoshikazu Okubo had argued that finding him guilty of murder would violate the Constitution’s right to self-determination. But the high court rejected the appeal, stating that the Constitution presumes the right to life but does not recognize a “right to seek assistance from others to end one’s life.”

Okubo was found guilty by the Kyoto District Court in March of administering a lethal dose of a sedative to Yuri Hayashi, 51, in her Kyoto apartment on Nov. 30, 2019, at her request. ALS is a progressive neurological condition for which there is currently no cure or treatment.

In the ruling, Presiding Judge Hidenori Nagai highlighted what he called Okubo’s disregard for life and deemed a prison sentence unavoidable based on the fact that he had acted solely after a 15-minute interview with Hayashi without conducting a medical examination or confirming her intentions. Judge Nagai added that  “there is no room to recognize (it was) socially appropriate.”

Okubo conspired with former doctor Naoki Yamamoto, 47, to administer a fatal dose of drugs to Hayashi, who was later rushed to a hospital before dying, according to the ruling. Yamamoto has also been given a prison sentence and is appealing.

In Japan, euthanasia is not legally recognized.

Yuri Hayashi kept a Twitter account and a blog – both of which have since been deleted – detailing her last months of being alive and her desire to end her life.

Okubo was also found guilty of killing Yamamoto’s 77-year-old father, Yasushi, in 2011, in conspiracy with Yamamoto.