Two Japanese doctors charged in the assisted death of woman with ALS.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Japan Times reported that prosecuters have indicted Yoshikazu Okubo, 42, and Naoki Yamamoto, 43. The two were arrested in July for allegedly giving Yuri Hayashi (51) a lethal dose of a sedative drug at her home in the city of Kyoto last November. Before her death, Hayashi transferred ¥1.3 million to Yamamoto’s bank account. Hayashi was diagnosed with ALS in 2011.

According to the Japan Times:

...Okubo, who operates a medical clinic in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, and Yamamoto, a doctor living in Tokyo’s Minato Ward, visited Hayashi at her Kyoto apartment on Nov. 30, pretending to be her acquaintances. They were not her attending physicians.

They left about 10 minutes later, and a caretaker, who had left the room while Hayashi was with the doctors, found her unconscious soon after.

She was pronounced dead at a hospital and traces of the sedative barbiturate, which acts as a central nervous system depressant, were detected in her body, the sources said.

Euthanasia is not legal and is prosecuted as a homicide in Japan.