'Brain Metastasis' Jimmy Carter, Hospital Treatment Abandoned

Decided to Spend Time with Family While Receiving Hospice Care
Three or More Falls in 2019

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Eunha] Jimmy Carter, who is setting a new record as the longest-lived former U.S. president, has decided to stop hospital treatment and spend his remaining days at home with his family despite his cancer spreading to his brain, the Carter Center announced on the 18th (local time). The Carter Center is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization founded by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in 1982. Carter, who is 98 years old this year, served as the 39th president from 1977 to 1981.

Jimmy Carter [Image source=Yonhap News]

In a statement posted on Twitter that day, the Carter Center said, "He has decided to receive hospice care at home with his family rather than undergo further medical intervention." Former President Carter had been treated for melanoma, a type of skin cancer, but in 2015, the cancer cells spread to his brain. In 2019, he experienced at least three falls.

In 1976, Carter, then a first-term governor of Georgia, entered the presidential race and created a sensation by defeating President Gerald Ford to become the 39th president. Four years later, he lost the re-election bid to Republican candidate Ronald Reagan.

Since then, he established the Carter Center in Atlanta in 1982 and has continued its activities for 40 years. The Carter Center has actively engaged in social activities such as private diplomacy, social movements, and Habitat for Humanity’s home-building campaigns, aiming to promote global peace, human rights, and public health, and it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He is regarded as a U.S. president who gained more popularity after leaving office than during his tenure.

Former President Carter became the oldest president in history after the death of former President George H.W. Bush at age 94 at the end of 2018.