An obstetrical surgeon declares to the Doctors of the Sorbonne that there are sometimes cases, although they are very rare, in which a mother cannot deliver her child, and in which the child is held in its mother's womb in such a way that it cannot make any part of its body appear, which latter would be a case, according to the Rituals, to baptize it, at least conditionally. The surgeon who raises the question asserts that by means of a little injection-pipe he can baptize the child directly, without doing any harm to the mother. He asks whether this means which he proposes is permissible and lawful, and whether it may be employed in such cases as he has described.

  The Council observes that the question proposed presents great difficulties. The Theologians assume the hypothesis that baptism, which is a spiritual birth, supposes a former birth; as they teach it, it is necessary to be born into the world to be reborn in Jesus Christ. Saint Thomas, in part 3, question 68, article 11, follows this doctrine as an accepted truth; one cannot, says this Holy Doctor, baptize children who are yet held in their mothers' wombs, and Saint Thomas bases his opinion on the fact that such children are not born and cannot be counted among other men; from this he concludes that they cannot be the object of an external action in receiving through the ministry of men the sacraments necessary to salvation: Children remaining in maternal wombs have not yet come forth into the light that they may lead their life among other men; therefore they cannot be the objects of human action that they may receive through the ministry of men the sacraments necessary to salvation. The rituals follow in practice what the theologians have ordained in these matters, and in a uniform manner they prohibit the baptism of infants who are retained in their mothers' wombs, if no part of their bodies appears. The agreement of the theologians and of the rituals, which are the rules of the dioceses, appears to establish an authority which settles the present question; however, the council conscientiously considering, on the one hand, that the reasoning of the theologians is founded merely upon a matter of expediency, and that the maintenance of the rituals assumes that one cannot directly baptize infants thus retained in their mothers' wombs, the which is contrary to the present supposition; and considering, on the other hand, that the same theologians teach that one may risk administering the sacraments which Jesus Christ has established as the easy but necessary means for the salvation of men; and deeming, furthermore, that children retained in their mothers' wombs are capable of salvation even as they are capable of damnation; -- for these considerations, and in regard of the statement which affirms that a certain means has been found of baptizing children thus retained, without doing any harm to the mother, the Council deems that one may take advantage of the proposed expedient, in the faith which it has that God would never leave this sort of infants without any succour, and supposing, as is asserted, that the means under discussion is proper to procure their baptism. However, since in authorizing the proposed practice it would be proceeding to change a rule universally established, the Council believes that he who consults it ought to address himself to his bishop and to whomsoever it appertains to judge the utility and the danger of the proposed means, and since, with submission to the pleasure of the bishop, the Council deems that it would be necessary to appeal to the Pope, who has the authority to interpret the rules of the church and to derogate them in case the law cannot accommodate whatever wisdom and utility may appear in the manner of baptizing here considered, the Council cannot approve the practice without the confirmation of these two authorities. The consulter is advised at least to address himself to his bishop and to apprise him of the present decision, in order that, if the prelate agrees with the reasons upon which the undersigned doctors base their opinion, in case of necessity in which he might risk too much to wait while the permission was asked and granted, he can be authorized to employ the means which he proposes, so advantageous to the salvation of the infant. In decreeing that one may avail himself of this manner of baptism, the Council nevertheless believes that if the infants in question should come into the world, against the expectation of those who had availed themselves of this expedient, it would be necessary to baptize them conditionally; and in this the Council is in conformity with all the rituals which, in authorizing the baptism of an infant any portion of whose body appears, nevertheless enjoin and ordain that it be baptized conditionally if it comes happily into the world.

Determined in the Sorbonne, 10 April, 1733.