2 JAPANESE DOCS HELD OVER ASSISTED DEATH OF TERMINALLY-ILL PATIENT

Two male doctors were arrested Thursday on suspicion of assisting a woman suffering from a terminal disease to die by giving her a lethal drug, Mainichi Shimbun reported late on July 23, 2020.

The two doctors -- one from Miyagi Prefecture and the other from Tokyo -- allegedly administered a sedative to the woman, who was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), at her home in the western Japan city of Kyoto in November last year with her consent, investigative sources said. The woman is believed to have wished for euthanasia.

ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that causes gradual paralysis.

According to the sources, the woman's ALS had progressed, and while she could talk, she could hardly move her body. The doctors in their 40s were not her attending physicians and are suspected of helping her die for money, the sources also told Kyodo news agency.