Article V: On Abortive Fetuses to Be Baptized

157. State of the question. - Immature or abortive fetuses are those which are cast forth from the womb of the mother non-viable, i.e. before the time at which, outside the womb of the mother, they can live in the circumstances determined here and now. These, if they live with a rational soul, are men and consequently certainly to be baptized; but there is doubt at what moment the fetus is animated by a human soul: whether only after some time, when the human figure already sufficiently appears (which we now know happens after about three months), as Aristotle, St. Thomas, and almost all the older writers taught, and as again is pleasing to several more recent writers; - or on the contrary from the very beginning of conception, as the moderns rather generally affirm too confidently or even without any hesitation.¹ Yet since in things necessary by necessity of means for salvation it is illicit in practice to adhere to probable or doubtful opinions, but the safer course is to be taken, hence in practice all living or doubtfully living fetuses are to be baptized; from which the following rules are easily understood.

¹ Concerning this question, as concerning the whole matter of this and of the preceding and following article, cf. our Questions on Embryology and on the Ministration of Baptism, II, q. 3, 4 and 5, which explain the matter more broadly.

158. Principles. - I. Living fetuses, after about three months from conception, or presenting a sufficiently human figure, are to be baptized absolutely.

II. Living fetuses, before three months from conception, or not presenting a human figure, are at least to be baptized under condition: if you are a man, or if you are capable.

III. Doubtfully living fetuses are to be baptized under the same condition.

159. Practical corollaries. - 1. Those things which a pregnant woman has poured forth in an abortion or flow of blood are to be examined, even in the first months, so that if a fetus is detected it may be baptized. Nor should it be thought that an ejected fetus is quickly dead: it is useful to note that very small fetuses have sometimes been found living a few days after ejection.

2. Yet since, before six months, they are not accustomed to live for long, they are to be baptized quickly. For time is not to be wasted in searching for signs of life, but if the ovum appears recent and the fetus white, not yellowish nor suffused, it is to be baptized immediately. Yet a certain sign of death is putrefaction of the ovum or fetus, not beginning but well apparent, whose signs are spots and stench.²

² Concerning other signs of life or death, it is spoken of in our said little work, q. 4, III and IV.

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;³ whence in fact, in practice, the time at which the fetus is certainly a man and the time at which life can be observed with certitude 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, it is to be done thus. The Code speaks according to ordinary contingencies and can disregard very rare exceptions.⁴ Moreover the canon can perhaps be understood concerning human life, as Vermeersch thinks.

³ "It more rarely happens that life is observed in an embryo before the third month has been completed, at least when it has been ejected from the maternal womb without its coverings; but it is accustomed to be ejected thus from the beginning of the third month." De Smet, op. cit., n. 319.

⁴ This holds even if the redactors of the Code followed the opinion of the moderns concerning animation from the first instant of conception. For, as Vermeersch notes, Th. M., III, n. 219, the Code "does not propose the opinion doctrinally in the least, but merely hands down a practical norm." Moreover the authority of the Code in this matter is not irrefragable, just as neither is that of the Roman Ritual. Whence just as the Ritual, in practice concerning Baptism in the womb of the mother or concerning monsters to be baptized, could err for several centuries, so also the Code could err in a practical question; if this were established concerning it, it would have to be abandoned.

4. A fetus which is brought forth enveloped in the ovum or covering is more advisably baptized by immersion, both because it is very small, and because it so easily floats in the amniotic fluid that it is uncertain whether it is touched by the baptismal water; there is added the fact that according to some it could be killed by contact with air.⁵

⁵ Capellmann, however, denies the danger, Medicina pastoralis, on Baptism.

Baptism is done in the following manner: under tepid water the membranes are broken, so that the amniotic fluid may flow out; once this is done, immediately the form of Baptism is pronounced: if you are a man, I..., while the whole matter of the ovum is immersed; and so that the sacrament may be entirely certainly valid, the fetus is also immediately extracted.

Nor can the mode which many authors have taught be approved,⁶ namely that the fetus first be baptized in the membranes under condition: if I can or if you are capable; and again, when the membranes have been broken, under condition: if you are not baptized. 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 air.

⁶ Still today the Theol. Mechl.; Eschbach; Mourreau and Lavrand (Le médecin chrétien) say this; formerly Cangiamila and De Breyne taught it.

5. Baptism is not to be conferred if the fetus is certainly dead, or if the abortive ovum produces a fleshy mass which they call a mole. A mole is a vitiated fruit of conception in such a way that the fetus is totally reabsorbed or only a trace of it is found. Concerning this Jerome Florentinius already writes:⁷ "If that covering poured forth appears surrounded by a membrane which is of whitish color, like intestines, of oval shape, and which at the touch of the finger becomes soft and yields, it is a sign that it is a fetus, not a mole: but if... it is shapeless flesh, interwoven with black and blood-colored veins, rough, hard, or stained with various color, then it will be judged a mole, not a fetus."

⁷ Dissertation on Men to Be Baptized Doubtfully, Lyons, 1658.

160. Admonition. - By the pastor, according to can. 743, and by the confessor when occasion is given, physicians, midwives, and mothers are to be admonished cautiously and prudently concerning the obligation of baptizing even the smallest abortive fetuses, lest they be thrown away unbaptized. It is best if a Catholic physician, or, if he is lacking, the pastor, teaches midwives, and these, or parents, teach younger mothers or wives.