Alan Mascarenhas
August 1, 2007
HE WAS the cowboy quack who held himself out as a qualified
doctor and blithelyprescribed the banned RU-486 abortion pill.
Unfortunately for Yao Guo Lin, the recipient of his treatment
was not a pregnant woman but an undercover investigator employed by
the NSW Medical Board, who "duped" him and secretly filmed the
whole transaction at his Haymarket clinic in September 2005.
During a chaotic hearing in the Supreme Court yesterday, Lin,
65, an animated Mandarin-speaker with long, slick hair concealed by
a cowboy hat, pleaded guilty through his interpreter to 31 breaches
of the Medical Practice Act.
The charges, which carry a maximum sentence of 12 months'
imprisonment, relate to Lin falsely presenting himself as a
registered doctor and orthopedic surgery specialist - by referring
to himself as "Dr" on his business card - even though he only
specialised in traditional Chinese medicine.
He also admitted to providing medical certificates to patients
for migraines, urinary tract infections and back pain without
examining them.
By day's end, however, the trial had dissolved into confusion,
with Acting Justice Jane Matthews increasingly alarmed at Lin's
decision to represent himself in court and his apparent failure to
understand the charges against him - even after pleading
guilty.
"Oh dear, I wish you had a lawyer appearing for you, Mr Lin. It
is still not too late," Ms Matthews said.
Addressing the court, the prosecutor Gerard Craddock said Lin, a
graduate of Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, who
came to Australia in 1988, had been notified by letter of the
concerns about his unregistered status - including Mandarin
translations of the relevant legal provisions - dating back to
2003.
With respect to the undercover investigation on behalf of the
NSW Medical Board two years later, Mr Craddock said Lin had posed
as a doctor capable of performing an abortion. When the
investigator, wearing a concealed camera and posing under the name
Carla arrived at Lin's clinic in Pitt Street, Haymarket, Lin
allegedly said: "I can do it."
Later that afternoon, when Carla returned with a faked urine
sample, Lin allegedly handed her tablets from a box marked
"mifepristone" - the brand name of RU-486. He allegedly told her:
"I must give you some tablets. You'll take the tablets for three
days and then the baby will come out."
At no stage did Lin realise that Carla was not, in fact,
pregnant, Mr Craddock said.
Responding through his interpreter, Lin claimed such tablets
were widely used in China to procure abortions with a more than 90
per cent success rate. He claimed, moreover, that he had been
"cheated" by the investigator. "I was of good intentions. I did not
expect to be duped."
Insisting that having a lawyer would not help him, Lin threw
himself on the mercy of Ms Matthews for a lenient sentence. He said
he "loved" his patients and did not want to harm them. Due to his
poor command of English, he never realised he had broken the law.
"I am under immense mental pressure. I am almost on the brink of
collapse," he said.
Lin also noted that in Victoria, specialists of Chinese
traditional medicine were permitted to call themselves "doctors".
He was registered in Victoria, he said, but that he had only
learned yesterday that this did not apply in NSW.
Lin is likely to be sentenced today. | 
发表于 2007-8-2 03:26
