Doctor’s 18 Year-Term for Consensual Killing of ALS Patient Upheld [Podcast Episode]

By Barrier Free Japan

November 29 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.

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.

Episode Notes:

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

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