Article VI: On Monsters to Be Baptized

161. State of the question. - A monster is a fetus in which the species of the human body is totally or notably deformed; an ostentum is properly called that which only has members multiplied or diminished or otherwise deformed, although among moralists it is also comprehended under the general name of monster. Monsters are some simple, others joined (double or multiple), according as one individual, or two or perhaps several individuals, are present adhering to one another.

Monsters which do not present a human species but a beastly one were formerly thought to arise from intercourse of a woman with brute animals, and therefore were not baptized, as the Ritual said, tit. 2, c. 1, n. 19: "a monster which does not present the human species is not to be baptized." Today physiologists entirely deny conception from coitus with brutes, and attribute the beastly species to the imagination of the woman or to a defect of formation; hence living monsters are generally considered to be men, and therefore are to be baptized, as the Ritual now prescribes in the new edition, n. 22, after the Code (can. 748). They are to be baptized absolutely if they certainly live and have a human species; - but if they bear a bestial species, at least conditionally, because before the end of the third month the species perhaps could have been deformed, so that it was never human, and consequently, according to the opinion of later animation, a rational soul never came to it, but only a sensitive soul is present.

162. Principles. - I. As to simple monsters: they are to be baptized absolutely if they have a human head or one nearer to human; under condition, if you are a man, if they have a beastly head.

II. As to joined monsters: if the monster forms several distinct men, all are to be baptized absolutely; but in doubt whether there is one or several men, one is to be baptized absolutely, the others under condition.

Hence: 1. If two (or several) heads and breasts are distinct, so that only the lower part of the trunk is common, undoubtedly two (or several) individuals are considered present, and therefore each one is to be baptized separately.

2. On the contrary, if the monster has two breasts and one head, or two heads and one breast, or two heads and breasts not distinct, let one head be baptized absolutely; the other head, or, if that is lacking, the breast which does not seem to correspond to the head, or both if neither corresponds to the head, under condition: if you are not baptized.

3. If there is one head and one breast, and only the lower members are multiplied, it is reckoned one center of life and one individual, to be washed only once.

163. Observations. - 1. The Code of Law says by a general formula, can. 748: "Monsters and portents are always to be baptized at least under condition; but in doubt whether they are one or several men, one is to be baptized absolutely, the others under condition." This holds of itself and regularly, provided there is the possibility of human life.

2. For an acardiac fetus is not to be baptized, which consists only of belly and feet without head and breast,¹ so that even if a heart is present, which nevertheless rarely happens, it is rudimentary and atrophic; a fortiori a mole, or shapeless fleshy mass, is not to be baptized, as was already said in n. 159, 5. In either case it is certainly not a man, as lacking organs altogether necessary for human life.

¹ "A head without a breast or a breast without a head are not found," Capellmann, op. cit., p. 111.

3. But if there is doubt concerning the presence of a head, Baptism should be conferred under condition.

4. In the case of a multiple monster, if danger of death is imminent and time is not available for each to be baptized separately, the minister will be able, pouring water on the heads of each, to baptize all at the same time by saying: I baptize you [plural] in the name... Yet outside imminent danger this is not licit, since then the form must always be repeated for each one.