Can sick infant be baptized?

[KEC85]

First some quick background about me. I am a Christian who has wanted to become Catholic for a while but for reasons which I won’t go into right now, has not taken the final step and actually become Catholic. I believe and agree with the teachings of the Church.
Now to my problem. My baby has some medical issues which are serious but are not considered “life threatening” at the moment. One of his medical conditions requires major surgery in the very near future. Surgery is not without risks, especially when being performed on an infant and I’m very concerned that if something were to go wrong during surgery and he were to die, he would die without having been baptized.
I know that anyone who is in danger of death may be baptized. My question is, how is “in danger of death” defined. Would I be able to have my baby baptized before his surgery, even though it’s very likely the surgery will go just fine and he won’t be in danger of death? Would a priest be able to baptize him?

 

[Pacbox]

Talk to a priest. He’ll be in a better position to answer you question.

A heads up: When you baptize a baby in the Catholic Church, you agree to raise that child as Catholic. Since you said that you want to become Catholic, this should not be a problem though it is preferable that you (well, both parents ideally) are Catholic before the child is since you will be raising them and teaching them the faith.

Prayers that the surgery goes well and for you and the baby.

 

[LilyM]

Talk to a priest. He’ll be in a better position to answer you question.

A heads up: When you baptize a baby in the Catholic Church, you agree to raise that child as Catholic. Since you said that you want to become Catholic, this should not be a problem though it is preferable that you (well, both parents ideally) are Catholic before the child is since you will be raising them and teaching them the faith.

Prayers that the surgery goes well and for you and the baby.

I think given the urgency of the situation it would be much less of a problem than if there was no illness in the case.

And the Church does encourage all of us to baptise children soon after birth, if possible within the first few weeks of life (Canon 867), regardless of there being any other danger or necessity in the case.