Osaka court upholds 18-year sentence for murder of ALS patient

The Osaka High Court on Monday upheld a lower court ruling sentencing doctor Yoshikazu Okubo to 18 years in prison for murdering an ALS patient at the request of the victim in 2019.

Presiding Judge Hidenori Nagai dismissed the defense’s appeal to acquit the 46-year-old doctor, backing the decision made by the Kyoto District Court in a lay judge trial.

During the high court trial, the defense again argued that it is against the right to pursue happiness set out in the Constitution to hold the defendant criminally responsible for an act to realize the “peaceful death” chosen by the patient.

The judge said there is no evidence that the defendant actually examined the patient, adding that it cannot be considered a sincere act and that “there is no room to recognize (it was) socially appropriate.”

According to the ruling, Okubo conspired with former doctor Naoki Yamamoto, 47, in November 2019 to administer a drug at the request of the then-51-year-old amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patient at her home in Kyoto, causing her death from acute drug poisoning.

In March 2011, Okubo murdered…