Japan: Conviction upheld in assisted death.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Mainichi Japan news reported on March 13 that the 30 month sentence in the assisted death of a person with ALS has been upheld by the Osaka High Court. The report states:

Naoki Yamamoto, 47, was found guilty by the Kyoto District Court of conspiring with a fellow doctor to administer 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.

The other doctor, Yoshikazu Okubo, 46, is currently appealing his 18-year prison sentence on the same charge.

Euthanasia is not legally recognized in Japan.

The presiding judge Yuko Tsuboi found that Yamamoto played a lesser role in the death but that he understood the nature of the crime. The report states:

Tsuboi also criticized Yamamoto for "showing an extreme disregard for human life," given that he accepted 1.3 million yen ($9,000) from Hayashi as a fee and carried out the crime shortly after their first meeting.

During the appeal, Yamamoto's defense continued to argue for an acquittal, claiming it was factually incorrect that he conspired with Okubo.

Yamamoto was previously convicted of murdering his 77-year-old father in 2011 by unspecified means, for which he has been sentenced to 13 years in prison.

Previous article on this story:

• Two Japanese doctors charged in the assisted death of a woman with ALS (Link).

Plan 75 film Director opposes the legalization of euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Cinema daily published an interview by Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi on April 17 with Chie Hayakawa, the director of the controversial film Plan 75, an award winning film at the Cannes film festival.

Hayakawa's Plan 75 is a dystopian criticism of the negative attitudes towards aging and elderly people. If you consider what is happening with Canada's euthanasia law, Hayakawa's concerns should be taken seriously.

The interview is couched under the concept that Plan 75 a film that "expresses support for euthanasia" but Hayakawa states:

C.H : It’s not a film about pro or con euthanasia. There is a motif of assisted suicide, but it’s not a theme of this film. One’s attitude towards how we die is very personal thing, it’s not something I want to judge. By telling this story, I wanted to stimulate the audience’s imagination and compassion to other people’s pain and emotion. I have some understanding and empathy toward people who seek the right to death-in-dignity, but I have doubt about legislating it because there may be certain people who are not allowed to have an alternative choice to death due to social or psychological pressure.

Hayakawa opposes the legalization of euthanasia. Plan 75 is also a commentary on the negative social attitudes towards elderly people. He states:

C.H : TV and the media are spreading fear about being old and creating a potential outlet for people’s anger and complaints about life in an insecure society. People tend to turn their wrath against the elderly not to the government.

Hayakawa continues:

C.H : Yes. That was the point. If I tell a story about people who are suffering from illness, the audience will say, “it’s good for them to have that option.” It will be easily accepted and people will stop thinking further. I want people to imagine and feel compassion to those who have no other option or who take the choice against their will. Also I want them to imagine how distorted our society will be if we have such system like PLAN 75 which is willing to hold out a death option to those who are suffering instead of giving them a helping hand.

The Netherlands have been debating the concept of "completed life" for several years, whereby a person who is 75 could die by euthanasia. The Netherlands Council of State published a report from December 2020, explaining why they rejected a "completed life" bill that was sponsored by the D66 MP Pia Dijkstra. 

Yale professor calls for mass suicide for Japanese seniors and mandatory euthanasia

By James Schadenberg

Yusuke Narita

On February 12, 2023, the New York Times published an article by reporters Mokoyoko Rich and Hikari Hida about controvesial statements made by an assistant professor of economics at Yale named Dr. Yusuke Narita regarding the burdens caused by Japan's rapidly-aging society.

Dr. Narita believes that the only solution to relieving the financial strains caused by Japan's aging demographics is the mass suicide of the elderly. He also believes it is possible that euthanasia will become mandatory. As the New York Times reports:

"I feel the only solution is pretty clear," [Narita] said during one online news program in late 2021. “In the end, isn’t it mass suicide and mass ‘seppuku’ of the elderly?” Seppuku is an act of ritual disembowelment that was a code among dishonored samurai in the 19th century.

Last year, when asked by a school-age boy to elaborate on his mass seppuku theories, Dr. Narita graphically described to a group of assembled students a scene from “Midsommar,” a 2019 horror film in which a Swedish cult sends one of its oldest members to commit suicide by jumping off a cliff.

“Whether that’s a good thing or not, that’s a more difficult question to answer,” Dr. Narita told the questioner as he assiduously scribbled notes. “So if you think that’s good, then maybe you can work hard toward creating a society like that.”

At other times he has broached the topic of euthanasia. "The possibility of making it mandatory in the future," he said in one interview, will "come up in discussion".

The article claims that Dr. Narita has developed a large following in Japan, partially due to his provocative statements. He has hundreds of thousands of followers on social media and frequently appears on Japanese online shows. The New York Times reports:

A growing group of critics warn that Dr. Narita’s popularity could unduly sway public policy and social norms. Given Japan’s low birthrate and the highest public debt in the developed world, policymakers increasingly worry about how to fund Japan’s expanding pension obligations. The country is also grappling with growing numbers of older people who suffer from dementia or die alone.

The comments made by Dr. Narita calling for the mass suicide of the elderly are disturbing and reflective of a mind that's been distorted to see vulnerable groups as being a mere problem that must be dealt with, as opposed to groups of persons who worthy of being treated with dignity and respect. 

Dr. Narita's predictions of mandatory euthanasia are shocking but not without historic precedence. Societies have never been immune from reducing vulnerable groups to "undesireables". As seen in the eugenics and euthanasia programs of the 20th century, human rights are sometimes ignored to "deal with" the financial strains attributed to these groups. Dr. Narita is not the first person to suggest euthanasia as a method to reduce healthcare spending, nor will he be the last.

 Further reading:

• Japanese dystopian euthanasia film "Plan 75" (Link).
• Canada has become a world leader in euthanasia (Link).
  
• Canada's health care savings attributed to euthanasia (Link).
  

Japanese dystopian euthanasia film "Plan 75"

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Jurgen Hecker wrote a film review of the Japanese dystopian euthanasia film "Plan 75" that was published by Japan Today on May 22. "Plan 75" reportedly shook audiences to the core at the Cannes film festival.

"Plan 75" responds to the aging demographic of Japan with a dystopian vision of a government program that would encourage people to die by euthanasia at the age of 75. Hecker wrote:

In the movie, anybody over 75 is encouraged to sign up for a deal with the government by which they receive a sum of money in return for agreeing to be euthanised. A collective funeral is thrown in for free.

Japan is the most rapidly aging population in the world. Japanese director and writer Chie Hayakawa stated:

"On the face of it, the government's Plan 75 is full of goodwill and friendliness and pragmatism, but in truth it is both very cruel and shameful,"

"I wanted the images to be aesthetic and beautiful, as well as cold and cruel, just like the plan itself,"

Hayakawa's first full-length feature film, is full of slow sequences with minimal camera movement. Hecker reported Hayakawa as stating:

"If such a plan was on the table today, I believe that many people would accept it, even welcome it as a viable solution,"

"Most young people worry already what the end of their life will look like. Will their basic needs be met? Can they survive once they live alone? Can they afford to age?"

"What worries me a lot is that we're in a social reality that would very much favor such a radical solution,"

"It's scary."

The Netherlands have been debating the concept of "completed life" for several years, whereby a person who is 75 could die by euthanasia. The Netherlands Council of State published a report from December 2020, explaining why they rejected a "completed life" bill that was sponsored by the D66 MP Pia Dijkstra.

 

Two doctors indicted in a second alleged euthanasia death in Japan

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

In August 2020 I reported that two Japanese doctors, Yoshikazu Okubo and Naoki Yamamoto, were indicted in the death of Yuri Hayashi. The two were arrested in July 2020 for allegedly giving Hayashi a lethal dose of a sedative drug at her home in the city of Kyoto in November 2019. Before her death, Hayashi transferred ¥1.3 million to Yamamoto’s bank account. Hayashi was diagnosed with ALS in 2011.

The same two doctors have now been prosecuted in the death of Yamamoto's father, Yashushi, who died on March 5, 2011 at the age of 77. Kyodo news reported:

Police served the doctors with fresh arrest warrants and arrested Junko Yamamoto on May 12. They discovered emails between the three discussing the cremation of Yasushi Yamamoto and how to write his death certificate.

He had been hospitalized in Nagano Prefecture for a mental disorder, but the three had him discharged on March 5, 2011, for transfer to a different hospital, according to investigative sources. He was allegedly killed later that day.

His death certificate, which said he died suddenly due to disorders in the heart and blood vessels, was signed by another doctor, a mutual acquaintance of Naoki Yamamoto and Okubo.

But that doctor told the police he had not signed any death certificate, the sources said.

This case shows how doctors who kill, even when its illegal, will often have done a similar act before.

I will keep you up-to-date on these cases.

• Two Japanese doctors charged in the assisted death of a woman with ALS (Link).
  

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.

For disabled people the idea of assisted suicide couldn’t be bigger.

Robyn Hunt

Robyn Hunt responds to David Seymour by explaining why people with disabilities strongly oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide, in her article published on August 24 in The Spinoff. Hunt writes:

I assure David Seymour that assisted suicide is a really big and complicated deal. It is no coincidence that disabled people all over the world oppose it. Our opposition arises from a (largely invisible) dark and troubled history, negative attitudes and behaviours towards disabled people and current human rights abuses. Disabled people see assisted suicide as dangerous because of their already marginalised status. Some disabled people are particularly vulnerable. 

Disabled and other people who oppose assisted suicide are not religious fanatics. Not Dead Yet Aotearoa was founded on disability rights not religious convictions. Assisted suicide supporters attempting to diminish the opposition by ignoring some and making sweeping statements about others is not helpful. 

Part of our unease relates to evidence that lives of disabled people are valued less than those of others. There is a history of euthanasia and eugenics, which have gone hand in hand for disabled people. The most notable, yet largely unknown T4 programme initiated by the Nazi Third Reich was the forerunner to the better known holocaust of Jews, gays, gypsies and others who did not meet the Aryan ideal. Around half a million people with of all kinds of impairments were killed. Some were tortured with “experimentation” before death. The first child to be euthanised was killed at the request of his parents. They were labelled “useless eaters”. Many disabled people today still feel the residual power of that label as they struggle with cuts to services, parsimonious supports and subtle pressures to find work. 

Even today those who murder their disabled family members, often vulnerable children, usually receive lesser sentences than other murderers. Their crimes may be labelled by the media and others as “mercy killings”. 

Disabled people in the past were often discarded by society, “put away” in institutions popularly labelled “bins”, forgotten by society and history and eventually buried in unmarked graves. Today’s mini-institutions still harbour instances of violence and abuse, occasionally gaining media exposure. Disabled people, especially women, feel more vulnerable because they know they are more likely to experience violence and abuse and often feel powerless. Powerlessness and assisted suicide can be a dangerous combination. 

Disability hate crime goes generally unremarked by public notice. While there were widespread and highly visible outpourings of solidarity and grief for victims of recent terror attacks in Nice, Paris and Orlando, there was a resounding public silence after the murders at Kanagawa Kyodokai at Tsukui Yamayuri En, west of Tokyo. Nineteen disabled people were stabbed to death as they slept. The killer was a former employee at the residential/rehabilitation facility for disabled people. In 50 minutes he killed 10 men and nine women and injured 24 others. 

He said afterwards it was better “that disabled people disappear”. He had offered to euthanise multi-disabled people for the state. The names of the victims will never be released because of the stigma and shame for their families. Disabled people everywhere were chilled and fearful in the face of widespread public indifference to the worst mass killing in Japan since World War II. 

Today in New Zealand disabled women can still have their children removed for adoption without their consent. Disabled people, particularly women are still sterilised without their consent, and are subject to invasive treatments such as the growth-attenuation Ashley Treatment, which threaten their bodily integrity. It is still difficult for some disabled people to have accessible information about medical procedures to enable them to make informed choices. Introducing assisted suicide would re-medicalise disabled people’s lives after a long fight to escape the unnecessary medicalisation of disability. 

Another serious human right violation in contravention of New Zealand’s international civil and political rights obligation sees a small group of disabled people incarcerated for years with no redress, despite having committed no crime. They are powerless and forgotten by wider society. 

Disabled people can and do have agency, but physical and other vulnerability and reliance on others for basic daily needs, while not being the “fate worse than death” some people imagine, does present complexities and added risk to daily living. 

Like most people we believe in the alleviation of suffering, such an untrustworthy and loaded word in this context of assisted suicide. One person’s perceived suffering can still be another’s rewarding daily life. Assisted suicide is not the only way to find dignity in death. We support the best palliative care and pain relief. Many disabled people would like to see medical marijuana legalised. Disabled people have committed suicide or attempted it. Yet there is no data collected or suicide prevention programme for disabled people when disability is framed in negative language and the “fate worse than death”. 

Free choice is another plank in the platform of assisted suicide proponents. Yet for many people, not just disabled people, choices are highly constrained, by circumstance, by resources, by subtle, and not so subtle pressure, for example, disabled friends with high support needs have had to fight hard to have externally inserted “Do Not Resuscitate” removed from from their medical records. 

Assisted suicide is therefore not simple, the “easy option” David Seymour would have us believe. Most disabled people remain focused on the goal of a good life, with all its difficulty, before thinking about a good death. There has been no demand for assisted suicide at any of the consultation meetings around the country (five) for the disability strategy that I have attended. 

Many disabled people know only too well the low value society places on disabled lives but they don’t focus on the common view that disability is all about deficit and despair even though there is a healthy level of cynicism about the systems and structures that are supposed to protect us. We know from experience that even with the best will in the world they don’t always work. 

Politicians see assisted suicide as a straightforward issue at their peril.

Robyn Hunt is a joint co-ordinator of Not Dead Yet Aotearoa, a focus for disabled peoples’ voices in NZ against euthanasia and assisted suicide legislation

Euthanasia - Disability Hate Crime and the silence.

Alex Schadenberg

Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Australian News Weekly magazine published an excellent article by Paul Russell, the Executive Director of Hope Australia and Vice Chair of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition-International.

Russell, in his commentary, examines the reaction to the disability hate crime that occurred in a care facility in Sagamirihara, Japan where on July 26, 19 people with disabilities were brutally killed and another 26 people with disabilities were injured. This was the largest killing in Japan since the second world war.

Russell is essentially commenting on the media response to the killing in his article that he titles: Euthaansia - Disability hate crime: then the rest is silence.

Russell sets up his article by quoting from a letter from the killer;
In a letter the killer sent to the Japanese Parliament some time before his heinous actions, he wrote:

“I envision a world where a person with multiple disabilities can be euthanised, with an agreement from the guardians, when it is difficult for the person to carry out household and social activities. 

“I believe there is still no answer about the way of life for individuals with multiple disabilities. The disabled can only create misery.”

Bill Peace

Russell quotes several responses by disability leaders to the killing. He first quotes from Syracuse, New York, disability activist and academic Bill Peace wrote on his blog: 

“This hate crime and mass murder led to a sleepless night for me. What took place could have happened in any nation. It could have taken place in Omaha, Nebraska, Cambridge, England, Paris, France, or Syracuse, NY. As I read story after story I felt a chill go down my spine when I read the following words: ‘He was just an ordinary young fellow.’ 

“I have no doubt he was an ordinary young fellow. That is what makes ableism so frightening. People, typical people, think life with a disability is worse than death. I plan to go out to lunch with my son. We will likely stop at a cross walk and wait for a light to turn. A biped will likely stand near me. That biped might be thinking, ‘Shit, if I were paralysed I would prefer to be dead. That guy should be dead. He sucks up too much health-care dollars.’ 

“This is what scares me. The silence. How many silently wish we people with a disability did not exist. My concerns are shared by many who have a disability and more generally any person with an atypical body.”

In another Blog comment Peace states:

“The hate crime in Japan graphically and horrifically demonstrates that people with a disability are prone to being the victims of violence. That violence includes murder. How many more people need to die before ableism is acknowledged as a global problem. 

“The violence I refer to takes many forms. Hollywood knows that films that kill disabled characters for their own merciful end of life resonate well with audiences. 

“Police in the United States have killed a host of people with a disability. Parents who murder their disabled children are given light sentences for their crimes.

Dave Hinsburger

Russell also quotes from Canadian blogger and disability activist Dave Hingsburger:

“The discussion of and public endorsement of the concept of mercy killing of people with disabilities had taken root in this man with alarming ferocity. No doubt he will be spoken of as someone who has mental health issues, and maybe he does. But when you read what he says, what he says isn’t far from what most people have come to believe. 

“His statement to the police upon turning himself in that ‘it’s better that disabled people disappear’ isn’t a deranged rant by someone out of control, it’s a calm statement of fact that echoes the sentiment of many in society. 

“People with disabilities know this sentiment, we hear it, we experience it and we have come to fear what it will do. Our lives are devalued, our needs are seen as special and therefore burdensome, our rights are declared to be gifts rather than guarantees.”

Russell is asking the question that the disability community has a right to know. Why all the media silence concerning the largest mass killing in Japan since WWII?