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Japanese Psychiatrists' Attitudes toward Patients Wishing to Die in the General Hospital: A Cultural Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2009

Douglas Berger ,
Yoshitomo Takahashi ,
Isao Fukunishi ,
Takashi Hosaka ,
Mary Alice O'Dowd ,
Yutaka Ono ,
Tomifusa Kuboki  and
Yoshihiro Ishikawa
Douglas Berger
Affiliation:
is currently a visiting researcher at the Tokyo Institute of Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan.
Yoshitomo Takahashi
Affiliation:
is a researcher at the Tokyo Institute of Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan.
Isao Fukunishi
Affiliation:
is Director of the Department of Clinical Psychology at the Tokyo Institute of Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan.
Takashi Hosaka
Affiliation:
is a lecturer of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, at Tokai University School of Medicine, Kanagawa, Japan.
Mary Alice O'Dowd
Affiliation:
is Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York.
Yutaka Ono
Affiliation:
is Lecturer of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Tomifusa Kuboki
Affiliation:
is Professor of Psychosomatic Medicine in the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Tokyo University Branch Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
Yoshihiro Ishikawa
Affiliation:
is Assistant Center Director at the Tokyo Institute of Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan.
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Extract

In 1961 in Japan, the son of a hospitalized man suffering from severe pain after a stroke mixed a cup of milk with insecticide and arranged for his unsuspecting mother to give this to the patient, who had requested that his son assist him in dying. The son could not endure his father's condition and killed him in order to show his love.

Type
Articles
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , Fall 1997 , pp. 470 - 479
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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