Former president Jimmy Carter opts for home hospice care for final days

Jimmy Carter, at 98 the oldest living former president, has chosen to spend his final days at home in Plains, Georgia, in hospice care after a series of brief hospital stays, the Carter Center announced Saturday.

Carter “has the full support of his family and his medical team,” the center’s statement said of the decision made by the nearly century-old former peanut farmer and engineer, who became the United States’ 39th president for one term from 1977 to 1981.

Carter has overcome serious health problems, including in 2015 when he was diagnosed with melanoma that had spread to his liver and brain. After treatment, doctors said he defied the odds and announced later that year that he was cancer-free.

The Carter Center’s announcement did not specify whether he has had a return of cancer, or whether another health condition prompted his decision that he was ready for hospice rather than continuing medical care.

The release stated that the family “asks for privacy during this time and is grateful for the concern shown by his many admirers.”

The announcement Saturday came more than four months after Carter celebrated his 98th birthday, including with a parade hosted by his hometown that the former president watched from a wheelchair.

The weekend before, he and his wife, Rosalynn, were driven around in a red convertible by a Secret Service agent during Plains’ annual Peanut Festival. Their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren walked behind the car.