Abstract â–¡ 90

The purpose of this research is to determine the trends and characteristics of Japanese precedents relating to SIDS.

A total 33 judicial precedents relating to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome(SIDS) from 1972 to 1998 were extracted using common keywords such as SIDS from three Japanese judicial precedent databases. These cases were analyzed from the viewpoints of case title, precedent contents, year of judgement, defendant or accused, result of lawsuit, presence of appeal, with or without autopsy, and with or without histological test.

In addition, the rate of appeals and the rate of final appeals were compared between Japanese precedents and American precedents relating to SIDS. For the calculation of these rates from American precedents, the judicial precedent database "Lexis" was used.

From the results of Japanese cases, the following were determined; 1) The case title consisted of 29 cases of demand of compensation for damages and 3 cases of professional negligence resulting in injury and/or death. 2) The years in which judgements were handed down consisted of 4 cases in the 1970s, 13 cases in the 1980s and 15 cases in the 1990s. 3) The defendants or accused consisted of 18 managers of nurseries, 7 managers of hospitals, 6 self-governing communities such as countries, prefectures or cities, 1 nurse, 1 dry nurse and 1 family case worker. 4) The results of the lawsuits consisted of the plaintiff winning in 6 cases, the plaintiff losing in 23 cases, and a decision of "not guilty" in 3 cases. 5) The judge ruled SIDS in 14 cases, asphyxia in 10 cases and the other 8 cases were ruled as neither SIDS or asphyxia. 6) Only one case was appealed. 7) Autopsies were carried out in 18 cases. 8) Histological tests were carried out in 10 cases.

The rate of appeals in United States courts was 12.3% and the rate of final appeals in United States courts was 0. The rate of appeals of state courts was 58.5% and the rate of final appeals in state courts was 49.4%. The rate of appeals in Japan was 3.1% and the rate of final appeal was 0.

In summary, although the difficulty for SIDS families in Japanese precedents relating to SIDS is considerable, recently it has changed slightly.