Tom DeLay agreed to pull the plug on his dad in 1988 and Terri's dad pulled the plug on his mother 


The Los Angeles Times reported that in 1988, Tom DeLay and his family decided to remove DeLay's dad from life support after doctors advised them that he would basically be a vegetable if kept alive after a tragic accident that caused serious brain damage. The DeLay family made their decision "without judges, emergency sessions of Congress or [a public] debate." 

The Times notes that "DeLay has denounced [Terri] Schiavo's husband, as well as judges, for committing what he calls 'an act of barbarism' in removing [her feeding] tube."

The Times cites these similarities between the two cases: "Both stricken patients were severely brain-damaged. Both were incapable of surviving without medical assistance. Both were said to have expressed a desire to be spared from being kept alive by artificial means. And neither of them had a living will."

Amy Goodman interviewed Suzanne Goldenberg, a reporter for The Guardian, on Democracy Now! on Tuesday and reported that more than a year ago Goldenberg published a story about Terri Schiavo's father, "who decided to turn off the life support for his own mother, who was ill with pneumonia for a week."

Goldenberg said, "after discussing with the doctors, [Mr. Schindler] decided his mother did not have a chance of a normal life, and so he decided to cut off the ventilator." She said, "he also told me that he wanted the decisions about his last moments [...] if he were to suffer a catastrophic accident [...] to be made by his wife, and the other two members of the Schindler family, Suzanne and Bobby, [...] suggested to me that they did not want to be kept alive, if they were, you know, in a persistent vegetative state or to be kept alive by artificial means."

There is a transcript of the interview on the Democracy Now! website as well as a video archive of the show. 

Posted: Thursday - March 31, 2005 at 01:36 AM          

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