Legal Question in Elder Law in Arkansas

Re: Can a blood son disallow step-children's care?

Does the son have some type of a power of attorney or Health Care Proxy for your step-mom? If not, she gets to make her own decisions regarding where she lives, type of medical treatment, etc. unless she is incapable of doing so. If she is unable to make these decisions, and he does not have power of attorney, you could petition the court to be appointed her guardian. If he objects, it would be difficult to get this guardianship, but from what you wrote, it might be worth it to at least try. If he didn't object, then you would have the right and responsibility to take care of your step-mom.

Did you ever live with step-mom? What type of contacts have the two of you had through the years. Did she adopt you? What county is this in?

There may be other options. I need more information to answer more definitely.

It sounds like you care about your step-mom and want to help her. There may very well be some way to do so.

You are welcome to email me answers to the questions I have asked, and to ask more that I'm sure you have.

Re: Can a blood son disallow step-children's care?

I would respectfully clarify a point made by my colleague in his response. Even if stepmom had named her son or anyone else in a Power of Attorney, she does not surrender her right to make decisions about her own life. Appointing someone your agent in a Power of Attorney is like a General appointing a Captain to assist him but the General can always countermand the Captain and can also void his appointment.

The problem with some elderly persons is that because of physical or mental weakness, they allow others to treat them like a child. If your stepmom is legal "competent" there is nothing stopping her from telling you to pick her up at the nursing home, hop on a plane with her and bring her to your state (I am assuming she's in AZ and you are in NJ). However, before I did anything like that, I would ask one of her treating physicians to certify that she's competent.

I cannot tell from your facts if the doctor felt she needed 24 hour care for physical or mental reasons. If it's the latter, it probably would be an uphill battle if her son decided to contest your appointment as guardian. This may depend upon his motivation - is he being difficult because he wants her money or just because he's callous and insensitive to her needs and since he seems to want to pay for nursing home care he's not concerned with conserving her assets so perhaps he won't put up much of a fight after all.