I'm not one to follow celebrities. But, as a subject as human rights, what is up with this?! A young woman can be denied her hard earned money, have her father decide if she can marry and force her to take birth control? She is not even allowed to hire her own attorney. Legal experts have said they believe her public plea hurt her chances of overturning the conservatorship. According to Spears, she was pressured to perform for a Vegas stint. Of course, she had no control of the money that brought in. She said that her father should be in jail. I think the judges who have tolerated this should be off the bench. Your thoughts?

I don't follow celebrity drama either. But, it is hard not to notice the human rights abuse taking place here.

This is a sad story of lifetime child abuse.

Shit is about to get real now. Her manager resigned after she announced that she was forced to do the Vegas gig, was forcibly drugged and didn't see a nickle from it. The court appointed attorney requested to be released. It is modern day slavery in plain sight. It makes you wonder how many people this has happened to who aren't famous.

Conservatorship was created with great intentions but is one of the biggest scams in the US and about as "un-American" an institution as exists in this country. It is rife with corruption and easily abused by those appointed to be conservators. This is especially true when the conservators are not a direct relative or don't have a close & loving relationship with the person they are supposed to be looking out for.

Most victims are elderly and lose every bit of wealth they have built up throughout their life. They lose their choice on where or how to live. Heirlooms of deep emotional value are sold off without the victim's consent. Medical orders, such as DNRs, can even be filed that override the person's desires or even religious beliefs.

People are mostly placed into this legal status without their consent, and at times without their knowledge. Finally, as illustrated in the Britney Spears case, once a person is put into this legal state, it is next to impossible to extricate themselves from it even if it was voluntary & supposed to be temporary.

As much as this sucks for Britney, her fight is doing an incredible service to everyone by shedding light on this legal construct that needs serious reform.

For more info see: NASGA link

Other random stories about abuses in the system:

https://www.kristv.com/news/national/a-g...er-guardianship

https://aaapg.net/floridas-apex-probate-predator/

https://www.google.com/amp/s/richmond.co...a1e2fa.amp.html

And of course... John Oliver's excellent expose on the system from 2018: https://youtu.be/nG2pEffLEJo

p.s. I don't believe that this is "politics" as it is a non-partisan issue... But, it is very much a public policy one so I apologize if I have overstepped in my response

Your post is absolutely fine. If Spears decides to run for office, the subject may come off the table. ;-) Thanks for the links. This is interesting. One of my close friend's sister is fighting for control over their dad and all of his assets. She has made it clear that she will sell everything and put him in a nursing home. Her brother has been taking care of him and is willing to continue for as long as he can. But, they don't get along so she is seeking to end that. It is alarming how people can lose rights to their own lives and belongings. It has made me thinks about important it is to have good legal work in place when you are young and healthy.

Bringing this to light is doing a service for those without that star power. Friends of mine just put their mother in assisted living because her doctor was complaining about her forgetting appointments and questioning medication he was prescribing. There was no second opinion. None of the children attended doctor appointments with her. It is not my place to tell this family what they should be doing. There could be things about the situation that I don't know. But, from the outside looking in, it doesn't take much to take over someone's life. It has changed the way I look at my friends. Who ships their mother off on the word of one doctor?

I understand where you are coming from but it could be that your friends personal experience with their mom echoed what the doctor told them, or they were already considering it, so the Doctor saying that was the 2nd opinion. What your friends are dealing with is one of the toughest things you will ever go through as an adult child of an elderly parent... And there are never any "right" answers, only choices between bad options (especially as you slowly take away independence from your parents). You may be right that they did this because one doctor complained but it is far more likely that the discussion with the doctor was the end of a long road that you didn't witness.

However it is important not to conflate the idea of managing care for a parent as a family decision (like your friends are doing) & the issues of Conservatorship. Conservatorship always involves a court decision. It also involves payment to the Conservator from the estate of the person being managed.

The Conservator can be the one who manages those fees and payments (including hourly billing for their time and "miscellaneous expenses"). They also have the power to allow or deny legal representation to the person who wishes to be removed from their care. All of this sets up a framework that is easy to abuse.

The Conservator may be a close relative but in many, many cases they are court appointed people or relatives that are not close family. In these cases they have a specific financial interest in maintaining their Conservatorship.

Finally, Conservatorship is also used for mental & physical incapacitation (i.e., Britney) in addition to end-of-life care related to dementia/alheimers/etc... Cases involving these younger people are necessary but also are more likely to be when people need the ability to move back out of the status, or to be able to remove an abusive Conservator. This is where the victims are completely hamstrung under current systems (keep in mind that rules are different state-by-state).

So, while the situation involving your friend's mom is tragic and her right to manage her own life being removed is similar, it is actually not the same thing as what Britney is dealing with in her battle to end the Conservatorship.

I completely agree that decisions for elderly parents is heart breaking and difficult. Most of the time, I'd like to think that the young people involved are sacrificial and have only the best of intentions. In the case of my friend's situation, the mother was still out gardening, driving herself to the grocery store, walking her dog, ect. It is their family's business but, I find what they did deplorable. The youngest daughter lived with her and off her for most of her life. As soon as she became forgetful about doctor appointments, it was off to the assisted living. Meanwhile, the daughter is back living her mother's home as if it belongs to her already. Those things do happen. I'd like to think that questionable intentions are rare. On the word of one doctor, nearly anyone can be put into guardianship. I find the standards for taking over someone's life and bank accounts too low. All this IMHO.

100% agree Miss Mary