Japan: Doctor gets suspended jail term for "mercy killing"

Description:

The Supreme Court of Japan found Dr Setsuko Suda, 55, guilty of murder for removing a breathing tube from a 58-year-old male patient whose heart and lungs had stopped functioning. At the family's request, Suda had injected a muscle relaxant to hasten the patient's death.

The court ruled that Suda did not have the right to assist the patient's death, saying she "was not in a position to precisely predict the likelihood of recovery or the patient's life expectancy".

Suda said she did not accept the guilty verdict. "I don't think it's a crime," she said. "In law it may be necessary to specify the life expectancy, but on the medical front we cannot make prim and stiff decisions."

Masafumi Takai, secretary-general of the Japan Society for Dying with Dignity, called for clearer guidelines. "It is an urgent task to introduce a legal framework on death with dignity so that doctors will be fully aware of (when they have) immunity and make decisions more confidently," he said.

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Source:

"Japan doctor gets suspended jail term for "mercy killing"". AsiaOne News. Wed, Dec 09, 2009. <news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Crime/Story/A1Story20091209-184947.html>. AsiaOne, 1000 Toa Payoh North News Centre, Singapore 318994. Copyright 2009 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd.

Tags:

Tags (or keywords) briefly indicate some major topics of the report.

  • euthanasia

  • mercy killing

  • judicial decision

  • doctor

  • Japan Society for Dying with Dignity (JSDD)

  • Japan

ID:

The EuthaNEWSia ID for this advisory is: enid200912097805.
Mailed: Wednesday, December 9, 2009 14:20:25 -0600
at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Etcetera:

EuthaNEWSia is a free Canadian news advisory service covering end-of-life issues such as right to die, assisted suicide, and euthanasia. EuthaNEWSia is produced by the Right to Die Society of Canada which works toward a good death for all, including open, regulated and equitable access to euthanasia and assisted suicide. The editor is Michael Dawson <editor@euthanewsia.ca>. 

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