Quote:
Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
That's not really your question, though. You ask the hypo; "If Delay lied about his father's wishes and pulled the plug to 'off the old coot'- is his behavior in the present case hypocritical?"
Let me extend an olive branch of agreement with your hypo.
|
I don't know if you even need to introduce lying into the hypo (even though I did). Seems to me that there's not necessarily a justification for deferring to a unanimous family when one won't defer to a split one. Sure, there are probably fewer errors if multiple members of the family agree as to the patient's "wishes", but I'm not sure that the error rate is sufficiently low that we can draw a line between the two.
That said, in the end, neither DeLay nor his family made any extensive efforts to determine dad's wishes, other than a "yeah, that's what he wanted" nod of agreement. They didn't appoint a guardian
ad litem; they didn't get a court order; nuthin'. Meanwhile, DeLay says that Schiavo not only has to go to court, he has to fight the question in the state courts, then the federal courts, and then some more in the state courts. The level of treatment for fairly similar situations is too dissimilar to call him a man of principle.
Threaded Mode