Posted on 03/27/2005 5:13:50 AM PST by 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."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Doctors Remove Terri Schiavo's Feeding Tube 3/18/05
Roman Catholic Monsignor Thaddeus Malanowski and another Catholic priest gave Terri Schiavo last rites, putting a few drops of communion wine in her feeding tube hours before it was removed.
There are quite a few differences between DeLay's father and Terri. Mr. DeLay was in a coma, on a ventilator and his kidneys were failing. Terry was being fed through a tube. She was breathing on her own, brain-damaged but not in a coma and until the dehydration her kidneys worked fine.
What's the harm giving Terri a sacrament of her Church(Catholic) on it's most holy day?
JMO, pure spite on michael schiavo's and judge greer's part.
"I figured the hysterical "it's murder" crowd would show up if I posted it."
Oh come on you are just mad at Tom DeLay as the leftists are, taking a stand and involving Congress, embarrassed you.
agreed Aussie.
The media does not even hide their extreme liberal madness.
They are shameless to the end. Especially with this article.
Delays dad was on life support. He could not breathe with out a machine. No response.
AND HIS KIDNEYS STARTED TO FAIL....MEANING HE WOULD NOT SURVIVE VERY WELL WITH LIFE SUPPORT.
Shiavo was not on life support. She could breathe on her own.
Delay's dad died quickly after the machine was turned off.
Because he was on life support and not living on his own.
Shiavo has lived for the past 10 plus days with out her feeding tube. Meaning she is being starved to death. She can live with out life support.
The LA TIMES are shameless pieces of sh-t.
The are liberal a-- hats who should rot in h-ll.
Delay's father's situation was nothing like Shiavo's. She is not on life support. Delay's dad was.
Delays dad was on life support. He could not breathe with out a machine. No response.
AND HIS KIDNEYS STARTED TO FAIL....MEANING HE WOULD NOT SURVIVE VERY WELL WITH LIFE SUPPORT.
Shiavo was not on life support. She could breathe on her own.
Delay's dad died quickly after the machine was turned off.
Because he was on life support and not living on his own.
Shiavo has lived for the past 10 plus days with out her feeding tube. Meaning she is being starved to death. She can live with out life support.
I don't see any hypocrisy here. His Dad was in a coma and machines were keeping him alive. There was no disagreement that he would not want to continue in this way. Terri's situation was that she was brain damaged, not hooked up to machines and there seemed to be more evidence, in my opinion, that she wanted to live. Also Michael appeared to have less than honorable motives.
There isn't any.
The LA Times is just a liberal rag who will go to any shame for the liberal democrat cause.
They look worse than the NY TIMES....and they don't care.
IT shows the whole mindset of liberals/democraps.
Sorry to say that you are wrong.
She has lived for how many days without food and water now? If she was not in good health to begin with she would have died in the first couple of days.
Her body was healthy. Her brain was damaged but her body was healthy.
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