DeLay's Own Tragic Crossroads: Family decided in '88 to let comatose father die.

Los Angeles Times ^ | March 27, 2005 | Walter F. Roche Jr. and Sam Howe Verhovek

[billorites]

CANYON LAKE, Texas: A family tragedy that unfolded in a Texas hospital during the fall of 1988 was a private ordeal without judges, emergency sessions of Congress or the debate raging outside Terri Schiavo's Florida hospice.

The patient then was a 65-year-old drilling contractor, badly injured in a freak accident at his home. Among the family members keeping vigil at Brooke Army Medical Center was a grieving junior congressman Rep. Tom DeLay.

More than 16 years ago, far from the political passions that have defined the Schiavo controversy, the DeLay family endured its own wrenching end-of-life crisis. The man in a coma, kept alive by intravenous lines and oxygen equipment, was DeLay's father, Charles Ray DeLay.

Then, freshly reelected to a third term in the House, the 41-year-old DeLay waited for the verdict of doctors.

Today, as House Majority Leader, DeLay has teamed with his Senate counterpart, Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), to champion political intervention in the Schiavo case. They pushed emergency legislation through Congress to shift the legal case from Florida state courts to the federal judiciary.

And DeLay is among the strongest advocates of keeping the woman, who doctors say has been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years, connected to her feeding tube. DeLay has denounced Schiavo's husband, as well as judges, for committing what he calls "an act of barbarism" in removing the tube.

In 1988, however, there was no such fiery rhetoric as the congressman quietly joined the sad family consensus to let his father die.

"There was no point to even really talking about it," Maxine DeLay, the congressman's 81-year-old widowed mother, recalled in an interview last week. "There was no way [Charles] wanted to live like that. Tom knew — we all knew — his father wouldn't have wanted to live that way."

[dennisw]

Terri Schiavo .... severely disabled and needs help feeding herself. Health is good

Tom Delay's father .... mortally wounded and on his way out of this life. The plug was pulled on a dying man to ease his suffering. I agree with the actions of the DeLay family


ZERO SIMILARITY

[dennisw]

A liberal hit piece alright. Tailor made to bamboozle the average reader of the LA Times. Plus look how they worked tort reform into it.

Scum= LA Times.

[Skooz]

These two situations are not even remotely similar.

But, leave it to the LA Slimes to publish this pablum to confuse the ignorant.

[JOE43270]

I agree. It has been going on to long with Terri.

[Cboldt]

Seems you just don't understand the issue do you? He was on a ventilator.

He, and most people posting here, DO understand the issue. Note the (usually repetetive) posts that are deliberately misleading. It's a reasonable conclusion that the person who composed that post DOES understand, and is sowing confusion.

A blessed and happy Easter to you too! He is risen! Hallelujah! Christ is victorious over death!

[joonbug]

Exactly.

Terri is/was not in a coma. She was not on life support (meaning a respirator or dialysis). Food and water is not life support, else we are all on life support.

[cripplecreek]

What bothers me is the fact that so many freepers are busy complaining about this branch of government or that branch of government and are leaving "we the people" out of the mix.


If an informed jury had been in the mix this would have never reached this point. It's the lack of knowledge that hands absolute power to judges and attorneys. History is full of supreme court rulings and opinions that clearly hold the power. Unfortunately we don't know our rights so we sit back and do as judges and attorneys tell us to do.

http://www.levellers.org/jrp/orig/jrp.jurquotes.htm


U.S. vs. DOUGHERTY (1972) [D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals]: The jury has...."unreviewable and irreversible power...to acquit in disregard of the instructions on the law given by the trial judge."

[Bigh4u2]

The only problem is this.

Since this is a civil case, the only one who could request a 'jury trial' would have been Michael since he been appointed Terri's guardian.

Not something he would likely have done.

[Dane]

Oh BTW, LA Times I doubt that the Delay's forbid any final religious sacraments for their father.

[ContraryMary]

She was eating until the day hino decided it was less of a bother to put her on the feeding tube.

Actually, Terri has been on a feeding tube for 15 years -- since she was first brought in to the hospital after her collapse. It was the doctors at the hospital who put her on the feeding tube and she has never come off of it.

[Abundy]

That cite is from a federal case. Most States either have a specific statute, or in the absence thereof, an appellate opinion, that prohibits jury nullification. The case arose in State Court. I have no idea what Florida's law is on jury nullification.

Before you decry such a state of affairs, consider that prosecutors use the statute/case law regularly to prevent defense attorneys from arguing jury nullification to a jury and thereby getting serious criminals off the hook.

[stopem]

We experienced this heartbreak with my 2 year old grandson who had terminal brain tumor and at the same time my mother had brain cancer, strange coincidence that the two of them had brain tumors? I had to care for my Mom at our home and than go to my daughter's to help her with my grandson.

Yes we know what it feels like to feel helpless and the enormous sorrow for years to come.

[cripplecreek]

I'm not so sure Michael is truely the only one who could request a jury. It's hard to say since the ruling in the case of Sparf vs US (156 US 51) determined that we need not be told of our rights.

It's probably too late for Terri but we had better get a grip on our courts fast. Attorneys have as much to gain as judges by keeping us in the dark. http://www.caught.net/juror.htm

[jocon307]

"Yeah they do, but they don't have stories of a son-in-law stating in court that he would take care of his disabled wife if he got an award, and then when he gets the money starts the legal motions to starve his wife to death"

Thank you for drawing that distinction!

[WOSG]

The only point of this article is to somehow make DeLay out to be a hypocrite. It does nothing of the kind if you look below the surface headlines, but then, what is the point of the article ... why dont they have an article on what the Kennedy family did to Ted Kennedy's disabled sister, etc.? OTOH, why not an article on the foster children Delay has? It's a big heaping non sequitor..

... the media really will stop at nothing to undermine conservatives.

[WOSG]

Dittos.

Eisenhower warned of the industrial-military complex, we have the Judicial-media/hollywood-academia Liberal elite complex, that work together to destroy all vestiges of America's original Christian small-Government traditional-morality culture.

[Mark was here]

In the article the DeLay family sues Lovejoy a company from Illinois.

Lovejoy makes motor couplers. A motor coupler consists of 3 parts, a part that goes on the end of the motor shaft, a part that goes on the end of the shaft being driven, and an insert that goes between them. the insert is flexible so that if the two shafts are not perfectly in line it will absorb the difference and prevent binding or other problems, the couplers allow the two shafts to be real close, but not perfectly aligned. These items are made in many different sizes and horsepower ratings. You can choose any size you want to use right out of a catalog and they are generally instock off the shelf items in industrial supply houses.

The manufacturer has no control over how these items are used and it is up to the designer and builder to determine the proper sizing and to consider what happens if this fails. What works for hauling a load of rocks up a hill side is a far cry from what would work carrying people, with people you need to follow elevator design standards and have failsafe mechanical breaking.

No way would I hold Lovejoy liable, by design the coupler should of been able to fail.

[ljswisc]

but they don't have stories of a son-in-law stating in court that he would take care of his disabled wife if he got an award, and then when he gets the money starts the legal motions to starve his wife to death

Precisely. Which is exactly why we're "hysterical". The reason no one knew about Tom Delay's story is because the family was unanimous in their decision, their trust in each other, and their trust that they knew what their father would and woudn't have wanted.

All of that is missing from Terri's case. Which makes it different from the other cases we haven't heard about.

[Mark was here]

Terri Schiavo .... severely disabled and needs help feeding herself. Health is good

Tom Delay's father .... mortally wounded and on his way out of this life. The plug was pulled on a dying man to ease his suffering. I agree with the actions of the DeLay family.

ZERO SIMILARITY

If she was in good health and just needed some help with a spoon, we wouldn't be having this conversation now would we?

Sorry to say her health has not been good for a long time.

Saying she is in good health just misleads people who mean good, those who want to make a statement and rightly stand up to the culture of death.

[USS Alaska]

Two years ago, my mother, who had a written, living will was allowed to pass without a ventilator {as she had specifically requested in her WRITTEN living will. There was no dispute as to her wishes, but it was the hardest decision that I've ever made. Terri Schiavo is being killed by starvation, sanctioned by the state and promoted by her mistake called a husband. I am as much a husband to Terri as is michael. I live with another woman, have two children to her but I also want to respect Terri's wishes {if I knew what they were}. Everything that can be said about this event that can be said, has been said. On Easter Sunday, pray for Terri's family. God will administer justice to michael.