Former US President Jimmy Carter goes into hospice care

After a series of short hospital stays, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention.

The news was announced Saturday by The Carter Center, a nonprofit founded by the former president and his wife Rosalynn Carter, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide.

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

The statement did not say why the 98-year-old Carter was in and out of the hospital.

According to a story from the Los Angeles Times, the former president reported in 2015 that he was undergoing treatment for melanoma following a surgery to remove a mass from his liver. Months later, he reported tests no longer showed any sign of the cancer.

Carter, a Democrat, is the oldest living former president. He was elected in 1976 as the 39th U.S. president, with Hawai‘i’s four electoral votes deciding the race. He served one four-year term. Carter has since pursued philanthropic activities, receiving the Nobel Peace Price in 2002 for his humanitarian work.

The former president served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975 and as a Georgia state senator from 1963 to 1967. Since leaving office, Carter has remained engaged in political and social projects, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his humanitarian work.

He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946 after which he served in the U.S. Navy on numerous submarines. After his father’s death in 1953, he left his naval career and returned to Georgia and assumed control of his family’s peanut-growing business.

The former president and first lady have made Plains, Ga., where he was born and raised, their home since 1960. They still live in the only house they have ever owned; which they have occupied since 1961.