DeLay Family Pulled PLUG On Father ***1988

March 27, 2005

THE TERRI SCHIAVO CASE
DeLay's Own Tragic Crossroads


# Family of the lawmaker involved in the Schiavo case decided in '88 to let his comatose father die.


By Walter F. Roche Jr. and Sam Howe Verhovek, Times Staff Writers

CANYON LAKE, Texas —

snip


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 (R-Texas).


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.


snip

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 wanted to live like that. Tom knew — we all knew — his father wouldn't have wanted to live that way."

On Dec. 14, 1988, the DeLay patriarch "expired with his family in attendance."


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-delay27mar27,0,5710023.story?coll=la-home-headlines

This is pretty fucking infuriating, but then, we are talking about Tom Delay.

And by the way, Delay's father didn't last for FIFTEEN fucking years....

Just, :grr:

He did not afford the family that privacy that he and his family enjoyed. He did not allow Terri the same dignity that he gave his father. He USED her for his own political gains. The hipocracy makes me sick as does the total lack of disregard for Terri and her husband.

"Its okay if you are a republican"

It's okay if you don't value life if you are a republican

It's okay if you pull the plug on a family member if you are a republican

Its okay if you are addicted to drugs if you are a republican

Its okay if you desert your military unit if you are a republican


and on and on and on. Please lurkers check in and set me straight.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1344741

Spread this information far and wide.

Mister family values didn't invite her (or his 2 brothers--one a preacher!) to his daughters wedding a few years ago. He DID invite all his big campaign contributors, though.

Rumor has it Mrs. Tom DeLay doesn't think his family is "classy" enough for her taste.

I had no idea.

pretends to not have contact w/ Tom.

There is no form of hypocrisy beyond the GOP. If Tom DeLay should start making strong statements about Michael Jackson, it would be time to fear for the young people of Houston.


That's why they call it dope.

Oh, please, tell me it isn't so! :eyes:

Always Err on the side of life! Delay is bound for Dante's Eigth Circle of Hell, for Hypocrits -

Level 8- the Malebolge

Many and varied sinners suffer eternally in the multi-leveled Malebolge, an ampitheatre-shapped pit of despair Wholly of stone and of an iron colour: Those guilty of fraudulence and malice; the seducers and pimps, who are whipped by horned demons; the hypocrites, who struggle to walk in lead-lined cloaks; the barraters, who are ducked in boiling pitch by demons known as the Malebranche. The simonists, wedged into stone holes, and whose feet are licked by flames, kick and writhe desperately. The magicians, diviners, fortune tellers, and panderers are all here, as are the thieves. Some wallow in human excrement. Serpents writhe and wrap around men, sometimes fusing into each other. Bodies are torn apart. When you arrive, you will want to put your hands over your ears because of the lamentations of the sinners here, who are afflicted with scabs like leprosy, and lay sick on the ground, furiously scratching their skin off with their nails. Indeed, justice divine doth smite them with its hammer.

Sucks to be Tom Delay!

Now that it's been found out Bush signed a law allowing hospitals to pull the plug over the family's objections, and that DeLay pulled the plug on his own dad, Freepers have moved the goal post. They now say these cases are different because in TX they only kill you if you can't pay, and DeLay's dad needed a ventillator, not a feeding tube. So Pro-lifers now support removing "life-support" (anything that keeps you alive besides a feeding tube) with the consent of your family, and without your consent if you can't pay.

All we need to do is bring up Bush's illegal abortion, and the evangelists will all be pro-life.

For those who didn't read the whole article, another little tidbit:
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In 1990, the DeLays filed suit against Midcap Bearing Corp. of San Antonio and Lovejoy Inc. of Illinois, the distributor and maker of a coupling that the family said had failed and caused the tram to hurtle out of control.

The family's wrongful death lawsuit accused the companies of negligence and sought actual and punitive damages. Lawyers for the companies denied the allegations and countersued the surviving designer of the tram system, Jerry DeLay
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The case thrust Rep. DeLay into unfamiliar territory — the front page of a civil complaint as a plaintiff. He is an outspoken defender of business against what he calls the crippling effects of "predatory, self-serving litigation."
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The case was resolved in 1993 with payment of an undisclosed sum, said to be about $250,000, according to sources familiar with the out-of-court settlement.
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Three years later, DeLay cosponsored a bill specifically designed to override state laws on product liability such as the one cited in his family's lawsuit. The legislation provided sweeping exemptions for product sellers.

But, given the vehemence with which he has been fighting to prolong Terri's life, it is a little surprising to learn that Robert decided to turn off the life-support system for his mother. She was 79 at the time, and had been ill with pneumonia for a week, when her kidneys gave out. "I can remember like yesterday the doctors said she had a good life. I asked, 'If you put her on a ventilator does she have a chance of surviving, of coming out of this thing?'" Robert says. "I was very angry with God because I didn't want to make those decisions."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3364707&mesg_id=3364707

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1077219,00.html


Anybody surprised that I have found NO mention of this fact in the US 'liberal press'?