Criminal prosecution arising from medical mishaps: a Japanese perspective

In Japan, the number of physicians being investigated on suspicion of medical malpractice has increased. Specifically, the criminal prosecutions arising from professional negligence resulting in bodily injury or death have also increased. Article 21 of the Japanese Physician's Act compels a doctor to notify the district police when he diagnoses a death to be 'unnatural'. Originally this provision was to increase public safety through crime detection, but one recent criminal case broadened the application of this article to include the death from a mishap during medical treatment. This criminal case made a tremendous impact on physicians, as the convictions and sentences forced physicians to notify the police even when it is not certain the patient died of the malady or of the medical misconduct itself. Besides, we wonder if such obligation of doctors to notify such 'unnatural' death from medical mishap may be against a person's privilege against self-incrimination which is assured by Japanese Constitutional Law (article 38).