Japanese Police Probe 7 Suspicious Deaths

By MARI YAMAGUCHI

TOKYO – Authorities are investigating the deaths of seven patients in suspected euthanasia cases at a northern Japanese hospital, officials said Saturday.

The patients died after someone removed their respirators at a public hospital in Imizu City in Toyama state, northern Japan, said city spokesman Masahiro Sato, who cited results of an investigation by the hospital.

Police have begun a murder probe into the cases, and investigators suspect a 50-year-old head surgeon caused the deaths of the patients by removing their respirators, Kyodo News agency reported.

Police refused to confirm the report.

Sato said the hospital and the city have reported the cases to the state government and police.

Imizu City Hospital head Hidetsugu Asanoi told a news conference Saturday that the surgeon admitted turning off the respirators after only obtaining consent from the families of the seven patients – three women and four men in their 50s to 90s.

The seven died between 2000 and 2005, Asanoi said.

“We have found the deaths of seven terminal cancer patients after their respirators were turned off,” he said.

Asanoi said the cases could not be considered death in dignity because the doctor only consulted with the patients’ families and did not obtain the patients’ consent.

“It is unknown whether the patients had clearly expressed their intentions (for euthanasia), and I find it particularly problematic,” Asanoi told a nationally televised news conference. “We apologize for the concerns we have caused to our patients.”

The city official said the identity of the doctor was not immediately available.

Public broadcaster NHK quoted the doctor as saying that he is fully cooperating with police and he had no other comment.

In 1995, a district court convicted a doctor of murder and sentenced him to a suspended prison term for giving a terminal cancer patient a potassium chloride injection to put him to death.

Imizu City is about 160 miles northwest of Tokyo.