Medicolegal aspects of death of patients with cerebral palsy in Japan

A total of 24 cases of patients who had had cerebral palsy, recorded between 1980 and 1986, in the Annuals of the Medico-Legal Autopsy Cases in Japan, were investigated to determine their ages and causes of death. Fourteen died of illness, four in accidents, and six by murder. Most of those dead of illness had been under the age of 16, and the disease most frequently cited as a cause of death was pneumonia. The four persons who died by accident were over 16 years old. All of the six murder victims were killed by their mother.