Earlier this week, the Tokyo District Court acquitted Dr. Takeshi Abe, the former Teikyo University vice president charged with professional negligence resulting in the death of a hemophiliac. The decision reveals the difficulty in passing legal judgment on medical acts by a doctor, in which effects and risks of treatment are two sides of the same coin. The not-guilty ruling also brings home the fact that a doctor's moral and social responsibilities are different from his or her legal responsibility.
In essence, the ruling said: In 1985, when Dr. Abe's subordinate at Teikyo University Hospital administered imported unheated blood coagulants to a patient under his orders, a majority of hospitals here were using the same products. Under the circumstances, most hemophilia specialists would not withhold their use. Therefore, Dr. Abe's continued use of the products does not mean he was negligent.
The trial turned on two critical questions. The first was whether Dr. Abe was aware of risks that the medications caused death from AIDS. The ruling, based on a detailed analysis of reports from virus researchers abroad, said the possibility of his anticipating the risk was "low."