[Post-mortem cesarean sections in Puerto Rico, 1805-1807].

The idea of saving an infant by incising the abdomen of the recently deceased mother was first put into practice in ancient times, and the Catholic Church endorsed its use to provide baptism for the infant's soul. The practice received official support in Madrid in 1804 with a Real Cédula (royal order) of Charles IV to the civilian and ecclesiastic officials of the Indies and the Philippines. This operation was used, before the cédula, in Spain, Mexico, Venezuela and Peru, but in Puerto Rico this order seems to have provoked the practice of post-mortem caesarean section. In a review of burial records of the San Juan cathedral for 1797 to 1814, one such operation is mentioned (1807), but the records of Cayey (a town in the mountains) from 1801 to 1812 show three cases (1805-6). We transcribe here (with modern spelling) the cédula and burial certificates, and we then comment on their significance.