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 ...
Or will.
Mine does.
There is a huge difference between "allowing" someone to die, and murdering someone in cold blood. What's happening to Terri clearly falls into that second category.
Mine too.
I read this story on Drudge last night.
I figured the hysterical "it's murder" crowd would show up if I posted it.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
If I was being murdered, I'd sure as hell hope some folks would be "hysterical" on my behalf.
You expect us to sit back and accept murder as the norm?
Which is exactly what the euthanasia advocates are playing on when they tell us that various people "wouldn't want to live that way." Of course, these various people do NOT have terminal illnesses, but, hey, why split hairs?
There's no doubt we have a real fight on our hands.
What these assh*les have made clear over the past week or so is that it is, literally, a fight to the death.
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
"kept alive by intravenous lines and oxygen equipment"
HUGE difference between what his father's condition and Terri's was.
A lot has changed in the 16 years since Delay's father died.
This passing away of Tom Delay's father has no comparison to Terri Schiavo's condition. Yet another scam propaganda piece from the LA Times. Designed to show Tom Delay is somehow a hypocrite .... which he isn't.
Seems you just don't understand the issue do you? He was on a ventilator. Happy Easter
There's a world of difference between the two cases but I'm not surprised the media would try to spin it such. Terri is not in a coma and she never was on life support. She was eating until the day hino decided it was less of a bother to put her on the feeding tube. What has been ordered by this Amerika is murder, not a passing.
Doctors advised that he would "basically be a vegetable," said the congressman's aunt, JoAnne DeLay.When his father's kidneys failed, the DeLay family decided against connecting him to a dialysis machine. "Extraordinary measures to prolong life were not initiated," said his medical report, citing "agreement with the family's wishes." His bedside chart carried the instruction: "Do not resuscitate."
On Dec. 14, 1988, the DeLay patriarch "expired with his family in attendance."
"The situation faced by the congressman's family was entirely different than Terri Schiavo's," said a spokesman for the majority leader, who declined requests for an interview.
"The only thing keeping her alive is the food and water we all need to survive. His father was on a ventilator and other machines to sustain him," said Dan Allen, DeLay's press aide.
Denying food and water to a incapacitated woman is not the same thing as shutting off a ventilator.
Doctors advised that he would "basically be a vegetable," said the congressman's aunt, JoAnne DeLay.When his father's kidneys failed, the DeLay family decided against connecting him to a dialysis machine. "Extraordinary measures to prolong life were not initiated," said his medical report, citing "agreement with the family's wishes." His bedside chart carried the instruction: "Do not resuscitate."
On Dec. 14, 1988, the DeLay patriarch "expired with his family in attendance."
"The situation faced by the congressman's family was entirely different than Terri Schiavo's," said a spokesman for the majority leader, who declined requests for an interview.
"The only thing keeping her alive is the food and water we all need to survive. His father was on a ventilator and other machines to sustain him," said Dan Allen, DeLay's press aide.
Denying food and water to a incapacitated woman is not the same thing as shutting off a ventilator.
DeLay's father was on life support Terri is not.
I have said, if I had no doubt about her saying she would want to go, then I would not be on the side I am. There is just too much reasonable doubt.
As far as politics, those who say someone else is making something political, are making it political. And you will not see one story from the media asking questions about Michael's motives. Anytime something like that is brought up in the media it is used to confront a Terri supporter, like, Opponents of Michael have accused her loving husband of having ulterior motives in this."
There are a many freepers who do not hold my view. I can respect their view, but I don't see a lot of that the other way. What I cannot respect is someone saying that the law is more important than those who it is meant to serve.
I can understand both confusion amongst people and possibly even some guilt for those that may have intentionally or ignorantly starved their loved ones to death... Regardless, death by starvation is murder...
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