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Police in Tokyo said Friday they have arrested a 59-year-old unemployed man on suspicion of killing his 92-year-old mother at their home last month.
According to police, Hidekuni Maehara strangled his bedridden mother Fusako with a thin cord at around 7 p.m. on Aug 28 at their home in Katsushika Ward, Kyodo News reported. He then tried to kill himself by taking an overdose of sleeping pills.
A doctor visited the home at around 10:10 a.m. the next day and saw a note pinned to the door, which read “Please call the police. I am sorry.” The doctor called police who found the woman, Fusako Maehara, lying on her bed in a room on the first floor.
Maehara’s son was found unconscious in another room. He was taken to hospital where he has been since this week. Police said they waited until he recovered before questioning him.
Police said he has admitted to killing his mother, who had been bedridden since she suffered a cerebral infarction eight years ago, and quoted him as saying he was worn out from looking after her as he had been her primary caregiver. He also said his financial situation was bad and he didn’t see how he could go on.
© Japan Today
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OssanAmerica
In some cases the elderly invalid asks to be killed. To end what seems to be never ending suffering, and the burden it places on the caregiver, in many cases the children whose lives and finances are completely wrecked from a prolonged home hospice situation. Sometimes the Parent just can't bear to to be the cause of their children's ruin. Cases like this often aren't some clear cut issue of cruelty or simple murder, although of course the latter applies legally.
Lindsay
Sadly, this is scenario that repeats itself way too often in Japan. People need help to care for ailing relatives. Help that is not available as a free service by the government. There are many private care companies charging ¥¥50,000+ for a singe visit. I’ve known many people in their 40’s and 50’s who will openly state they are just waiting for their ailing parent to die so they can get their life back.
kaimycahl
@Nuno Teixeira da Cunha TRY walking in that person shoes if you haven't experienced that life then quiete!!
Non sense comments above, no one can kill a elderly neither leave him it"s a crime to negligence or/ and abandon. With her advanced age couldn't he wait 1 or 2 weeks for her to die naturaly? What about killing himself with pills? Was he saving mind set to take only a few and expect to die? Stupidity became so normal and it is so offensive.
GuruMick
Leaving aside the particulars of this case, isnt it about time Japan,s Government addressed the issues surrounding an aging population and shortage of care givers.
Seems immigration assistance to foreign trained nurses, plus subsiding the costs of care should be a priority.
I wonder how many thousands of households are wrestling with the challenges of caring for an aged relative.
kaimycahl
WOW! This is so SAD all around the poor guy wanted to support his mom but he himself had no support so he decided to take his life also. H*e has admitted to killing his mother, who had been bedridden since she suffered a cerebral infarction eight years ago, and quoted him as saying *he was worn out from looking after her as he had been her primary caregiver. He also said his financial situation was bad and he didn’t see how he could go on.
Alex
Yes, caregiving is absolutely a profession (often unpaid) that makes you bone-weary exhausted. But what I fail to understand is how these people - an uncountable number of them now - think that killing the person who relies on them would make anything better? You do nothing but take a life and become a despicable murderer. If you don't want to care for another person anymore, if you can't, why not just leave? Call in to the police anonymously, let them know there is a bedridden senior all by themselves so that someone can go help them, and leave? Why kill your loved one?? I will never understand this cruelty.
Nuno Teixeira da Cunha
Non sense comments above, no one can kill a elderly neither leave him it"s a crime to negligence or/ and abandon. With her advanced age couldn't he wait 1 or 2 weeks for her to die naturaly? What about killing himself with pills? Was he saving mind set to take only a few and expect to die? Stupidity became so normal and it is so offensive.