My brother's wife admitted him into a nursing home due to some memory issues that he has. He has been a successful physician & feel that she only wants all of his money but not him anymore. She wants to commit him & is having a psychiatric evaluation done tomorrow. Our family wants to stop this evaluation. How can we go about doing this? He lives in Hilton Head S.C.

Patty - I don't think that as a sibling you can prevent your brother's wife from requesting the evaluation. If you don't believe your brother has issues that could get him committed then I suggest you contact the competency evaluation committee and request that you be able to present your case. Don't focus on your perception of your sister-in-law's motives, but rather evidence that your brother is capable of making decisions on his own and taking care of himself. By the way if his "memory issues" are due to Alzheimer's and it's advanced to a stage where a competency hearing is in order I would expect your S-i-L to try to be appointed guardian and be granted power of attorney for his financial affairs. Your recourse would be to show that she is not fit or has a conflict of interest.

Actually, I very much doubt that a POA would be involved. To my knowledge no one can execute a POA except the principal (Patty's brother, in this case), and if he is non compos mentis, he wouldn't be able to do so either. A guardianship appointment would, however, have the same effect.