In re D.L.H.

OPINION

Justice SAYLOR.

In this appeal, we consider whether plenary guardians can refuse life-preserving medical treatment on behalf of a person who lacks — and has always lacked — the capacity to make personal healthcare decisions, where the person is neither suffering from an end-stage medical condition nor permanently unconscious.

D.L.H. (“David”), age 53, has suffered from profound mental retardation since birth and has resided at the Ebensburg Center, a Department of Public Welfare (“DPW’) facility, for nearly his entire life. He is an incapacitated person under the guardianship provisions…