Jimmy Carter enters hospice

Former President Jimmy Carter, who at 98 is the oldest living president in United States history, has decided to forgo further medical treatment and spend his final days at home with his family, the Carter Center said Saturday.

The center said in a statement that “after a series of short hospital stays” Carter chose “to receive hospice care in lieu of further medical intervention” for the “remaining time.”

“He has the full support of his family and medical team,” the center said. “The Carter family asks for privacy during this time and is grateful for the concern shown by his many fans.”

The Carter Center did not give a reason for the recent hospital stays. In 2015, Carter was diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer that had spread to his brain and liver. After treatment, the tests came back and showed no cancer.

Carter, who was sworn in as the 39th president of the United States in January 1977 and served one term, turned 98 last year. Before that, George H.W. Bush, the 41st president from 1989 to 1993, was the oldest living president. Bush died in 2018 at the age of 94. Both were born in 1924.

Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for what the organization behind the award called “his decades of tireless efforts to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”

In 1982, he and his wife, Rosalyn, founded the Carter Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to these causes. He and the center are known for monitoring elections in foreign countries and fighting disease in developing regions. Carter is also a longtime volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring that people have affordable and safe homes.