KYOTO -- Two medical doctors have been arrested on suspicion of the murder of a Kyoto woman with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, at her request through the administration of lethal drugs.
The Kyoto prefectural police arrested Yoshikazu Okubo, a former technical official at the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, from Sendai and Naoki Yamamoto, a doctor of Minato Ward, Tokyo, on Thursday for the alleged murder of a 51-year-old woman, with her consent at her Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto, apartment building in November.
Okubo, 42, and Yamamoto, 43, were not the attending physicians of the woman, who was receiving home care for the incurable ALS. The doctors are believed to have become acquainted with her through social media, the police said.
The two are suspected of administering drugs at her request at about 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 30 last year.
The police have not revealed whether Okubo and Yamamoto have admitted to the suspicion.
The woman lived alone and received around-the-clock care. A caretaker was present at her home on the day of the incident, but was in a separate room during the two doctors' visit, the police said. Shortly after they left, the caretaker found her in an unconscious state.
Her attending physician was contacted by the caregiver and called an ambulance. She was then transported to a hospital where she died at about 8:10 p.m., the police said.
An autopsy performed by the prefectural police revealed a large dose of drugs in her body, and she was found to have died from drug poisoning.
The drugs found were not the ones prescribed to her. The police investigated the two men whose images were caught on a security camera.
She used a computer that could be operated using ocular movements, and had posted on Twitter and blogs her desire to be euthanized, according to the police. Police searched her computer to find who had been in contact with her, and identified the suspects.
More than 1 million yen was deposited into Yamamoto's bank account by the woman prior to the incident, the police said.
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