Prosecutors seek 23 years for Japanese doctor in consensual killing case

Prosecutors on Thursday sought a 23-year jail term for Yoshikazu Okubo, 45, a doctor accused of the consensual killing of a woman with a fatal neurological disease.

Okubo is accused of conspiring with former doctor Naoki Yamamoto, 46, in administering a fatal dose of a sedative drug through a gastric feeding tube to Yuri Hayashi, then 51, at her request in her apartment in Kyoto on Nov. 30, 2019. The Kyoto District Court is scheduled to deliver its ruling on March 5.

Hayashi was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive neurological condition with no cure and little available treatment. She had reportedly been living with the condition since 2011, and is believed to have wanted to die by euthanasia due to her severe immobility.