“Please baptize my son”: The Case against Baptizing a Dying, Unconscious Atheist

Abstract

A twenty-three-year-old atheist man was admitted to the intensive care unit after a motor vehicle accident left him terminally unconscious. He was not expected to survive long, so his religious mother asked the attending physician to ask someone from the hospital's spiritual care team to perform an emergent baptism. The physician consulted ethical and spiritual services to determine the best course of action. This essay, which, together with “The Case for Baptizing a Dying, Unconscious Atheist,” by Abram Brummett and Nelson Jones, forms a two-essay case study, argues that the ethicist should recommend against baptism in such a scenario. Without consent, baptism would contradict the patient's self-determined identity and inflict significant dignitary harm. The emotional benefit provided to the mother or other family members, while potentially significant, is insufficient to justify this dignitary harm.