Question Four: Concerning Immature Fetuses to Be Baptized

I. A great question is debated among scholars, philosophers, and theologians concerning the moment at which the fetus is animated by a rational soul.¹ Aristotle² and almost all the writers of the Middle Age, with Saint Thomas,³ taught that the animation of a male fetus occurs about⁴ after forty days, of a female after eighty, from the instant of conception. Their reason is that no form is received in matter unless this has been sufficiently prepared and is proximately disposed for receiving the form; but who will say that at the beginning of conception the matter is sufficiently prepared for receiving a rational soul and for constituting a man? Moreover, in the fetus there are observed first the phenomena alone of nutrition and increase, then sensitive life appears, and this finally is so ordered that it can serve rational life; whence first there seems to be present a vegetative soul, then a sensitive, lastly a rational. These arguments are probable.⁵

¹ Capellmann, Eschbach, and Antonelli in the cited works can be consulted; De Smet in Coll. Brug., t. VIII; Revue Eccl. de Liege, 1907-08, t. III, n. 2; Dict. de Theol. cath., article "Animation" (Chollet).

² De Generatione Animalium, l. II, c. 4.

³ In II Sent., d. 18, q. 2, a. 3; Q. D. de Pot., q. 3, a. 9, ad 9; Contra Gentes, l. II, c. 87, 88, and 89; Sum. Th. I, q. 118 and 119.

⁴ Nevertheless there is not one opinion of all in this matter. Hence, Saint Alphonsus says (Th. M., l. 3, n. 394): "Lessius..., from Hippocrates, judges that the male is animated at most on day 30, or 35, or 40, or 45; but the female on day 35, or 40, or 45, or 50. And Lugo and Bonacina and Filiucci feel the same... Nevertheless Busembaum... Elbel... and the Salmanticenses with Saint Thomas, Azor, Sylvius, and the common opinion... say that the male is formed and animated in the space of 40 days, but the female in 80... Indeed Saint Thomas, d. 3, q. 5, a. 2, thus says: The conception of a male is not perfected except up to the 49th day, as the Philosopher says in IX de an.; but that of a female up to the 90th; but in the composition of the male body Augustine seems to add six days..."

⁵ We omit the theological arguments which are brought forward on each side, both because they are not proving, and because they pertain less to a question scientific and philosophical in itself. They are set forth in Dict. de Theol. cath., cited article.

On the contrary, almost all more recent authors⁶ teach that animation occurs in the instant of conception. The reason is that beings are not to be multiplied without necessity; but the rational soul can furnish all things which the vegetative or sensitive soul furnishes; therefore there is no reason for admitting a succession of souls. Moreover experience establishes: a) that the fetus lives from the beginning of conception and therefore is animated; b) that he develops regularly and without interruption, and indeed in such a way that the development naturally is terminated in man: for from the beginning all things are so disposed that they necessarily produce a man; c) that from the beginning the fetus already has all things necessary so that he is a man: for it is established that one and the same being is conceived, develops, and finally is born. There is added that no moment can be assigned at which the soul would be infused.⁷ Whence modern authors hold immediate animation as almost certain.⁸

⁶ Yet not all admit this. For philosophers such as Liberatore, Cornoldi, Sanseverino, and physicians such as Santi and Liverani deny it. To these recently have acceded Em. Card. Mercier (Psychologie, 3e p., ch. II), Dr. J. Lenssen (Quelques considerations sur la nature de la vie et de la mort in the periodical Echo religieux de Belgique, 1902), and P. Vermeersch in his Th. M.

⁷ These arguments are not apodictic. The first does not prove, because if the soul were infused from the instant of conception and constructed its own body for itself, it would be the sole exception to this universal law: no form is infused unless the matter is proximately disposed for receiving it. The other, drawn from experience, proves only that from the beginning there is present in the embryo some principle of life and a sufficient power of producing a man, or at least that the embryo is placed in such circumstances that it necessarily develops into a man; but not that from the beginning it is already a man. But many have receded from the opinion of Aristotle and Saint Thomas, especially from opposition to the Scholastics' system concerning matter and form, because it transcends their understanding, whence they hold the succession of souls in the fetus as something incredible and absurd; likewise from false experiences by which they thought it established that the fetus has all organs essential to man, in small dimensions indeed, already from the beginning. But these things move no one still today.

⁸ Thus Capellmann, Medicina Pastoralis, de abortu; Eschbach, Disp. Phys. theol., disp. 3, cap. 2, prop. 2 and 4; Antonelli, I, n. 255, note; Surbled, La Morale dans ses rapports avec la Medecine, t. II; Gury-Ballerini, Th. M., I, n. 402; Lehmkuhl, Th. M., II, n. 74; Aertnijs, Th. M., I, n. 192; Genicot, Th. M., I, n. 374; Tanquerey, Th. M., suppl. ad Matr., n. 63, and others. Better Noldin, Th. M., II, n. 69: "Almost the common opinion..., but it does not exceed probability." Likewise Salsmans and Prummer.

In these last times the matter has again been made more doubtful. For it is established both that the seed of the man lives in him by its own proper and independent life, and therefore is animated, not indeed by the soul of the man but by its own vital principle,⁹ and similarly that the ovum of the woman lives in her; and the two elements are not always united immediately after copulation. But when they are united, so great and so radical a change does not occur that the composite may then be said already to live by a rational soul: for since before each separated element lived by its own proper vital principle, it seems to be affirmed that now also it lives united by a similar principle. Therefore the rational soul will probably be infused only when the fetus undergoes an altogether radical change and acquires the external species of man; this occurs toward the end of the third month: then, indeed, there is reason why he may be said to be animated by a rational soul.¹⁰ Nevertheless, the difference between males and females which the ancients asserted, relying upon certain false experiments, is most certainly to be rejected: for at this time the very difference of sex cannot yet be discerned. "For the organs of generation," Eschbach testifies (o. c., 3, c. 2, prop. 4), "in the fetus, not until after the third or fourth month from conception, appear sufficiently distinct that it may be determined whether it is male or female, since before this no one can say of what sex the embryo is."

⁹ "The spermatozoid, the male element, has a life proper to itself distinct from that of neighboring spermatozoids and from that of the generator, since it can continue to move separately from the other spermatozoids and outside the generator... The mature ovule, the female element, has a life apart like the spermatozoid... From before fecundation, there is in each generative element an individual life, therefore a principle of life, a soul..." Thus Chollet, professor of Lille, in Dict. de Theol. cath., art. "Animation." Saint Thomas already acknowledges this (I, q. 119, a. 2), that the seed is not animated by the soul of the man, "because... if it were animated, while it is resolved and separated from the living thing, it would lose the form of the whole, and together with it life; and thus it would be on the way to corruption, and therefore could not be a principle of life in a generated living thing." Goudin, Philosophia, tom. III, de Anima, a. 4.

¹⁰ Nor afterward can any other moment be assigned at which the soul would likely arrive. Hence prop. 25 was condemned by Innocent XI: "It seems probable that the fetus, as long as it is in the uterus, lacks a rational soul, and then first begins to have the same when it is brought forth, and consequently homicide is committed in no abortion." Nor is it an obstacle that, when the third month has been completed, intellectual life cannot be exercised; for no one will prove this, and besides, this being granted, nevertheless there is sensitive life not in just any way, but insofar as it is ordered to rational life, so that in its dispositions it differs essentially from the life of a simple animal.

II. Since each opinion concerning the moment at which the fetus is animated is probable,¹¹ it follows that all living fetuses are to be baptized, absolutely after the third month, before this time under condition: si es homo, or: si es capax. For charity, even with great temporal inconveniences, strictly obliges all to procure the salvation of another; and therefore it commands that from our action or omission there not follow even a probable danger to another's salvation. For just as it is illicit to kill a fetus probably animated, so it is illicit to cast him away without Baptism; but before all things the soul must certainly be saved.

¹¹ "In the present state of the question, it seems that there is, neither in Sacred Scripture, nor in tradition, nor in pontifical documents, nor in theology, nor in philosophy, nor in biology, any decisive argument in favor of one of the two animations." Thus Chollet, in Dict. de Theol. cath., cited article.

Therefore abortive fetuses certainly live, or only probably live, or certainly are dead. If they certainly live, they must be baptized, absolutely if they bear the form of man, i.e., after the third month; before this time, under condition: si es homo. If they probably or doubtfully live, let them be baptized under condition: si es homo. If they are certainly dead, they are not to be baptized.

III. Certain signs of death are:¹²

¹² They are indicated in Capellmann, o. c., de Baptismo, and in De Smet. There are also other signs for physicians.

1. If the ovum is born torn in the first months, which not rarely happens: for then the fetus is lost or absorbed, and certainly dead;

2. if before it is expelled, it has remained for a long time in the uterus apart from the placenta, or with the placenta separated from the mother herself, it comes forth certainly dead and corrupted;

3. if abortive ova form a mass which they call a mole;¹³ concerning this case Jerome Florentinius already writes:¹⁴ "If that poured-out covering appears surrounded by a membrane which is of whitish color, like intestines, of oval figure, and which, touched by the finger, softens and yields, it is a sign that it is a fetus, not a mole; but if... it is formless flesh, interwoven with black and bloody veins, rough, hard, or stained with various color, then it will be judged a mole, not a fetus";¹⁵

¹³ A mole is a vitiated fruit of conception, and indeed in such a way that for the most part not even a trace of a fetus is found; this inert fruit certainly neither ought nor can be baptized.

¹⁴ In the dissertation de Hominibus dubie baptizandis.

¹⁵ For understanding the foregoing, let it be noted with Antonelli, t. II, n. 22-23: "In the first four months abortion does not always follow the cause which produces it, and in the coverings of the fetus certain processes accede which slowly dispose toward abortion, by which it happens that the ovule is diminished and the fetus perishes; often in the membranes, and especially in the decidua serotina, blood vessels are torn, which greatly increase the size of the ovum, which then makes a bloody mole, or changes it more or less profoundly; but when these hemorrhages of the membranes have already happened for a long time and the membranes appear discolored, then fleshy moles are had; sometimes in the amniotic membrane the embryo is lacking, which after death has suffered maceration; sometimes only small traces of it are found; sometimes finally the embryo remains perfectly preserved. Namely, when abortion follows the cause of the abortion itself, the ovule is perfectly preserved."

4. if there is putrefaction of the ovum or fetus, not merely beginning, but well apparent, the signs of which are spots and odor;

5. if there is a corrupt and putrid flow, corruption of the fluids of the amnion, blood, etc., which, with abortion almost imminent, flow from the uterus;

6. generally for fetuses of the seventh and eighth month: if there is effusion of the amniotic fluid several days before delivery, or the greatest flow of blood many hours before delivery, as in placenta previa.¹⁶

¹⁶ What placenta previa is, see above, p. 22, note 1.

When those signs are lacking, the ovum is always to be baptized if it is fresh, not discolored or putrid; and the fetus, if he is white, and not yellowish or somewhat dark.

IV. Certain signs of life are:

1. pulsation of the heart, which at the beginning is placed near the head, and can already ordinarily be observed after five or six weeks;¹⁷

¹⁷ Indeed Antonelli (II, 28): "More probably in the fetus the heart begins to beat before the third week of pregnancy; if it is not easy to notice these pulsations, it suffices to note whether pulsations are in the umbilical cord."

2. movements which can be observed in the muscles, sometimes already from the third month, but ordinarily not before the fifth month completed, at which time the muscles are already perfectly developed;

3. pulsation of the umbilical cord, which is perceived by touch.

V. It has seemed to certain persons very difficult to confer Baptism upon an embryo, both because of its small dimensions, and because of the danger of death which, the membranes by which it is enveloped having been ruptured, would threaten the embryo from cold water or from contact with air.¹⁸ Now, although at the beginning it is very small, nevertheless it can easily be recognized: after a month, and sometimes after three weeks, it has the length of one centimeter, if it is extended; after six weeks, up to seventeen to twenty-five millimeters of length; at the end of the third month, seven to nine centimeters. But such fruits it is advisable to baptize by immersion, both because they are very small and because they so easily float in the amniotic fluid that it is uncertain whether they are reached by baptismal water; there is added that according to some they could be killed by contact with air.

¹⁸ Nevertheless Capellmann denies the danger, l. c.

Baptism is done in the following manner: under lukewarm water let the veils be ruptured; these having been ruptured, let the form of Baptism immediately be pronounced: si es homo, ego..., while the matter of the ovum flows out; and so that the sacrament may be altogether certainly valid, let the fetus also be extracted at once.

Nor can the mode which many authors have taught¹⁹ be approved, namely that the fetus first is to be baptized in the membranes under condition: si possum or si es capax; and again, the veils having been ruptured, under condition: si non es baptizatus. For neither Baptism is certain: not the first, because it is not done upon the fetus; nor the second, because, as they say, perhaps the fetus is killed by the air.

¹⁹ Still today the following say this: Theol. Mechl.; Eschbach; Mourreau and Lavaud (Le medecin chretien); formerly Cangiamila and De Breyne taught it.

VI. Concerning the causes and signs of casual abortion let it be noted:

A. Abortion has place:²⁰

²⁰ Antonelli I, n. 419, and II, n. 20.

1. when the fetus has died, as often occurs in the first months of pregnancy, when its nutrition becomes insufficient on account of excessive development of the fetal membranes, or on account of grave hemorrhage proceeding from the uterus or from other organs; but sometimes the fetus dies because of disease, from infection of the mother, which kills him, or, and this most frequently, because of syphilis transmitted by the father, without harming the mother, while immediately it mortally affects the organs essential to the life of the fetus.

2. Another sufficiently frequent cause of abortion is had in some diseases of the rectum, in inflammations of the uterus or vulva, and especially in metritis, which induces vehement uterine contractions expelling the fetus in the fourth or fifth month of pregnancy; but then the fetus ordinarily comes forth healthy but dying.

3. Likewise diseases which fever, deficiency of oxygen in the blood, or acute anemia accompany, or a predisposition, from heredity or morbid irritability, to abortion, by which it happens that certain women, because of certain small impressions which do not at all harm other women, undergo abortion, such as some small labors and very slight excitations, a light agitation of spirit, etc.

4. Indeed sometimes excitations which occur in certain nerves, which, by a reflex way, are transmitted to the uterine nerves, inducing contractions, such as excitations in the female genital canal or upon the vulva and breasts.

5. Finally, several anomalies of the internal genital organs, retroflexion of the uterus, tumors, scars which impede the increase of the uterus, anomalies of the ovum and of its membranes, injuries and operations in the genital organs, strong emotions, fright, uncontrollable vomiting, in which sometimes the fetus is expelled with the certain death of the mother.

B. Concerning the signs²¹ of abortion let it be noted: In the time of expulsion of the ovum the uterus contracts, the blood vessels are torn with hemorrhage, which removes the ovum. Therefore hemorrhage is the most evident sign of abortion in the first three or four months.

²¹ Antonelli, II, n. 24-27.

Abortion in the first time of pregnancy is very frequent; in multiparae it occurs more frequently than in primiparae. In the first weeks it bears the form of painful and abundant menstruation without grave symptoms; by this it happens that women undergo it without calling a physician and without noticing the abortion itself. In the second and third month the symptoms are graver.²² After the fourth month, regularly, hemorrhage is not had before abortion, if you except the case in which the placenta is separated, or placenta previa is had. Fetuses at this time are brought forth living, or already having suffered maceration, dead or in a state of dying. Often the ovum is emitted with the placenta and the membranes enveloping it.

²² Let mothers or midwives teach pregnant women concerning the course of abortion both for administering Baptism and for removing the evil consequences which can arise.

VII. Practical Warnings. Counsels to be given to physicians, midwives, and spouses.

1. Those things which a pregnant woman has poured forth in abortion or in a flow of blood are to be examined, even in the first months, so that if a fetus is detected, he may be baptized. Nor does it therefore follow that Caesarean section at this time must always be done: that obligation urges more than that of Caesarean section. For on the one hand a lesser probability of life in the fetus is required so that Baptism may be ministered to him conditionally than that the deceased mother be incised, which is a means not altogether ordinary nor obvious to all; and on the other hand there is a founded hope of finding the fetus living in the case of abortion, while that hope is lacking when it is a question of cutting the mother in the first months: namely, life is more easily preserved in an embryo torn from a healthy and well-functioning mother than in a fetus to be cut out from the uterus of a dead mother. For it can be noted that the smallest fetuses have sometimes been found living a few days after expulsion.

2. Nevertheless, since before six months they are not accustomed to live long, they are to be baptized quickly. For time is not to be worn away in inquiring for signs of life, but if the ovum appears fresh and the fetus white, he is at once to be baptized.

3. Before the end of the third month, signs of life are accustomed to be uncertain, and are observed with difficulty because of the smallness of the embryo;²³ whence in fact, in practice, the time at which the fetus certainly is a man and the time at which life can be observed with certainty coincide. And therefore the Code of Canon Law, as a general practical norm, which holds ordinarily and in most cases, could establish (can. 747): "Care is to be taken that all abortive fetuses, brought forth at whatever time, if they certainly live, be baptized absolutely; if doubtfully, under condition." Namely, regularly, unless something certainly stands in the way, this is to be done. The Code speaks according to things ordinarily happening and can neglect the very rare exceptions.²⁴

²³ "More rarely does it happen that before the third month has ended life is observed in the embryo, at least when ejected from the maternal womb without its coverings; but thus it is accustomed to be ejected from the beginning of the third month." De Smet, De Sacr., n. 319.

²⁴ The Code presents the opinion "by no means doctrinally, but merely hands down a practical norm." Thus Vermeersch, Th. M., III, n. 239.

4. Let physicians, midwives, and spouses know the manner of baptizing, what they ought to baptize, and when under condition.

5. In a dangerous delivery let them have natural lukewarm water at hand; they are bound under grave obligation either to cleanse their hands, as far as can be done, from blood, mucus, and feces, because otherwise the water would easily be rendered impure, or to pour pure water by means of a little vessel.

6. While the water flows, for which it does not suffice that they only dip the thumb, let them pronounce the entire form, no delay being interposed; and with due intention, under no condition about the future, e.g.: if the infant will be able to be born or to go to church, etc. Let them also do this, if possible, before two witnesses, or at least one (can. 742); and let them warn the parish priest about the thing done.

7. To take care that they are instructed about these things belongs to the parish priest, and indeed under grave obligation (can. 743). It is best if a Catholic physician, or if he is lacking, the parish priest, teaches midwives, and these or the parents teach younger mothers and wives. For this the following can be useful: Instructions sur la manière de baptiser les enfants nouveaux-nés. Onderwijzingen aangaande het doopsel der nieuwgeboren kinderen (Mechlin, 1851), which are found in the appendix to the treatise de Sacramentis of the Mechlin Theology, but are somewhat obsolete; likewise Instructio ad Clerum de erudiendis obstetricibus, of the bishops of Austria, 7 April 1894, which can be read in De Smet, de Sacris, or in Nouv. Revue Theol. francaise 1900, p. 95; likewise Salsmans, Geneeskundige Plichtenleer, for the educated; likewise Bapteme d'urgence pour raisons medicales. Doopsel in den nood en rol van den geneesheer (Act. cath., Brussels, 1922), a little work nevertheless not to be approved in every respect.²⁵

²⁵ Passing over the inopportune excursus about the case of a dying adult destitute of senses, who gratuitously and altogether improbably is affirmed to be able to be baptized with the sole intention of saving himself; several things are handed down which are not sufficiently right and which betray an excessive desire of diminishing obligations. We note the assertions: 1) that Baptism conferred on the hair is almost certain; 2) that the placenta is of fetal origin; 3) that in practice there is never an obligation for the mother to undergo Caesarean section; 4) that the fetus can survive the dead mother only for half an hour or somewhat more, while nevertheless it can even happen for several hours; 5) the counsel given generally to blood-relatives and midwives of abstaining from Caesarean section after the death of the mother. The intention of restoring peace to consciences is perhaps laudable; but let it not happen with detriment to truth and the amputation of divine law.

Instruction of spouses by the priest is often not done without great inconveniences; sometimes the confessor can instruct them after marriage has been entered, if occasion is given: nevertheless let him be prudent.

VIII. Observation concerning burial. "Every fetus, if he has been baptized either in the uterus or outside the uterus, either absolutely or conditionally, is to be buried in a sacred place; but in a profane place, if he has come forth dead without Baptism; but a fetus extracted from a deceased mother and, Baptism having been received, dead, is to be placed back in the mother's womb so that he may be buried with her." Thus De Smet, de Sacris, n. 323. Cf. Rit. Rom., tit. VI, c. 2, n. 7.