Jimmy Carter, 98, receives hospice care in Georgia

Former US President Jimmy Carter will “spend his remaining time at home” to receive hospice care, it has been announced.

The 98-year-old made the decision after a series of hospitalizations, the Carter Center said on Saturday.

“After a series of brief hospitalizations, former US President Jimmy Carter today decided to spend the rest of his time at home with his family and receive hospice care in lieu of additional medical procedures,” the Carter Center said in a statement.

“He has the full support of his family and medical team. The Carter family requests privacy during this time and is grateful for the concern of his many admirers.”

Mr. Carter, a Democrat, became the 39th US President when he defeated former President Gerald Ford in 1976. He only served a single term and was defeated by Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.

He is the oldest living former president in US history and still lives in a modest home in rural Plains, Georgia, a two-and-a-half hour drive south of Atlanta.

Mr Carter had a small cancerous mass removed from his liver in 2015. And in 2016, he announced that he needed no further treatment because his cancer was cleared with an experimental drug.

The other living former presidents are Donald Trump, 76; Barack Obama, 61; George W Bush, 76; Bill Clinton, 76.

Mr Carter’s grandson, former Georgia State Senator Jason Carter, took to Twitter to say his grandparents were “at peace”.

“I saw my two grandparents yesterday. They are at peace and – as always – their home is full of love. Thank you all for your kind words,” he tweeted.

The former president, a lifelong Baptist, told a Sunday School congregation in 2019 that he was “death satisfied” after his cancer diagnosis, CBS News reported.

“Of course I prayed about it. I didn’t ask God to let me live, I just asked God to give me an appropriate attitude towards death. And I found that I was absolutely, completely comfortable with death,” he said, according to the news organization.

“I didn’t really care if I died or lived. Since that time I have been absolutely convinced that my Christian faith includes complete trust in life after death. So I’ll live again after I die – I don’t know what form I’ll take or anything.”

Mr. Carter was a peanut farmer and a US Navy lieutenant before entering politics, serving one term as Governor of Georgia from 1977 to 1981.

He received the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for his peace efforts around the world and is a longtime supporter and volunteer of Habitat for Humanity.