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In July 2017, Robert O. Young, who has marketed himself as “Robert O. Young, M.S., D.Sc., Ph.D.,”was sentenced to prison for practicing medicine without a license. Young would like you to believe that he is a highly educated and distinguished scientist. I do not believe that is an accurate description. This article describes his background and the activities that led to his conviction.
In 2009,
Young claimed on YouTube that he had cured Kim Tinkham, a woman with breast cancer who had appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show and said she intended to heal herself rather than undergoing medical care. He also posted six testimonial videos to his pH Miracle Living site. However, Tinkham died of her disease about a year later.
In January 2014, Young and two associates were arrested and charged with multiple counts of grand theft and conspiring to practice medicine without a license. The San Diego District Attorney’s press release stated that Young accepted patients, including some who were terminally ill, and temporarily housed them at his pH Miracle ranch [14]. The charges alleged that Young and his associates broke the law when they went beyond advocating dietary changes and administered intravenous treatments to patients, some of whom were terminally ill. In February 2016, following a 2-month trial, he was convicted of two counts of practicing medicine without a license. During the trial, Deputy District Attorney Gina Darvas portrayed Young as a charlatan who preyed on the sick and vulnerable—including dying cancer patients—and duped them with bogus science [3]. A few weeks after the trial ended, Darvas announced that Young would be re-tried on the charges for which the jury was unable to reach a verdict [15]. In 2017, faced with the possibility of retrial, Young pleaded guilty to two more counts of practicing medicine without a license. The plea agreement called for a 44-month sentence, some of which had already been served under house arrest [16]. It also contained this statement:
I, Robert O. Young, declare freely and voluntarily, under penalty of perjury that
I do not have any post high-school educational degrees from any accredited schools.
I am not a Microbiologist.
I am not a Hematologist.
I am not a Medical Doctor.
I am not a Naturopathic Doctor.
I am not a trained scientist