Below is from Life Legal Defense Foundation on the battle of the daughter of Marian Leonard and the state of Alabama. They have made Ms. Leonard a ward of the state and denied her daughter visitation, placing her in protective custody and appointing a guardian to take over Marian’s health care as well as her finances.
Life Legal Defense Foundation has taken on the state of Alabama to fight for Ms. Leonard. See their message below and please take the action requested.
Mrs. Leonard’s daughter, Nancy Scott, contacted Life Legal after she learned thather mother had been placed in hospice care even though she is not terminally ill. Mrs. Leonard named her daughter as her health care power of attorney years ago. Nevertheless, the state of Alabama overrode Marian’s wishes,placing her in protective custody and appointing a third-party guardian to take over Marian’s health care—and finances—after erroneously believing Nancy moved her mother to home care against a doctor’s recommendation.
Ms. Scott says she had the “full permission and blessing” of the doctor to move her mother from a nursing home in Tennessee back to the family’s home town in Alabama.
Life Legal received confirmation today that the state-appointed guardian has banned all visitors from seeing Marian, including her daughter. The guardian claims visitation “is not in Mrs. Leonard’s best interest.” When the friends asked the nursing home staff whether this is legal, they were told the home and guardian could “do anything they wanted to” because Marian is a ward of the state.
We are outraged at the guardian’s treatment of Mrs. Leonard. The guardian—a complete stranger to Marian—has forced this elderly woman to spend the rest of her days in total isolation, with no one to oversee her care. Marian Leonard committed no crime, yet she has been stripped her of her civil rights and is being treated worse than a prisoner.
Third-party guardians such as the one appointed in this case are typically paid for through the ward’s estate and have the power to liquidate assets without permission from the ward or family members.
TAKE ACTION: We are asking the public to report this injustice against Marian Leonard by calling the Alabama Adult Abuse hotline at 800-458-7214 and the Alabama Department of Public Health at 800-356-9596. Mrs. Leonard is at Diversicare Riverchase in Alabama, which has a 2.5 out of 5-star rating on Google.
The mission of Life Legal is to give innocent and helpless human beings of any age, particularly unborn children, a trained and committed defense against the threat of death, and to support their advocates in the nation’s courtrooms. To learn more or to make a contribution to help them with their work, please use this link.
Voices for Life 