Old Age Seen as Justification for Forcing Woman onto Hospice

By Terri LaPoint

The admission sounded like something out of “Logan’s Run” or other dystopian sci-fi movie, not an explanation one would expect to hear from legal associates. Nancy Scott and others who joined her in a peaceful prayer vigil for her mother’s life on Tuesday, August 20, were stunned when representatives from the court-appointed guardian’s office explained that the reason that retired Alabama schoolteacher Marian Leonard was on hospice was because she was old.

According to Medicare.gov, hospice care is supposed to be for people who are certified by a hospice doctor and the patient’s regular doctor that they are terminally ill with a “life expectancy of 6 months or less.” Hospice care is palliative, or “comfort” care, rather than curative care, and it is supposed to be a choice that the patient makes, not a decision thrust upon them without their consent.

That is not what has happened with Marian Leonard. When the state seized guardianship of Mrs. Leonard in February 2018 at the request of St. Vincent’s Hospital and the Department of Human Resources (DHR), she was forced into a nursing home, Diversicare of Riverchase, and forced onto hospice care, against her will and that of her designated Power of Attorney, her daughter Nancy Scott.

At that time, Marian Leonard pleaded with her daughter to get her out of there, saying she feared that they were going to kill her if she did not get out. Nancy Scott has been fighting ever since to free her mother from state custody. She has hired attorneys and gone to court, but has thus far been unsuccessful.

When Birmingham-area pro-life advocate Phil King saw Mrs. Leonard’s story, he called for a prayer vigil. A handful of supporters brought signs and prayers to the sidewalk in front of court-appointed guardian Sidney Summey’s office in downtown Birmingham Tuesday.

Photo by Sherrie Saunders

They were joined by a small group of people who stated that they worked for Summey’s office.

Nancy Scott took the opportunity to explain to them that her mother had never been diagnosed with any kind of terminal illness, and thus should not be on hospice. The only “diagnosis” was a fraudulent statement on a medical report by a convicted felon named Lisa Fuller that Marian had “End Stage Alzheimer?s [sic] Disease.”

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Old Age Seen as Justification for Forcing Woman onto Hospice