This book deals with a unique topic that forms part of medicine, religion, and women's history. It is divided into three sections: the introduction, written by the authors; the main document, Pedro José de Arrese's Rudimentos Físico-Canónico-Morales 1786, translated into English; and a final section in which the authors include translated excerpts of contemporary writings (1799–1830) for the purpose of comparison.

The introduction offers a short, insightful, and readable analysis of contemporary medical, religious, and legal beliefs surrounding baptism, salvation, and death as factors that create the moral responsibility of clergymen, surgeons, and midwives to perform postmortem cesarean operations. The description of the religious and medical sources that influenced the Rudimentos places the document into context, and the detailed footnotes and explanations will be most helpful to those unfamiliar with the topic.

Regarding its content, a couple of comments are in order. First, the document's disregard for the dead pregnant woman, noted by the authors, may be the result of the caesarean operation's objective: to baptize the fetus and save its soul (its chances of survival were close to nil). As the deceased woman had already attained salvation (or not), the Rudimentos (and similar writings) focused only on the fetus's spiritual welfare. Second, the crucial need to administer baptism, emphasized by the authors, is undeniable, but their statement that “the operation [had] the larger goal of maintaining and propagating an empire managed by ruling elites, in part, by trying to ensure that the souls of colonized subjects’ infants would be eternally brought into the fold of Catholicism” (4) is not convincing.

In regard to the present, the authors point out that in Guatemala male paternalism and moralistic judgements over women's bodies, choices, and lifestyles persist. Such prejudices continued to influence medically erroneous beliefs about pregnancy and the female body at least until the1970s, as shown by some publications.

The insightful introduction guides the reader through the historical background and medical challenges of the time, clarifying terms and placing facts into historical perspective. It also includes questions (presumably for students), proposes lines for further inquiry, and warns about the research challenges posed by scant and scattered sources.

The second section consists of the first English translation of Pedro José de Arrese's Rudimentos Físico Canónico Morales. As are many contemporary manuals, it is written in a question-and-answer format, except for the instructions to perform the surgery, which are written in narrative. The document explains the importance of baptism, the causes of miscarriage, the signs of life and death, and who should perform the operation, as well as including detailed instructions on how to carry it out. In doing so, it provides a wealth of information on contemporary medical, scientific, and religious beliefs, such as the perceived length of the fetus's survival inside a dead woman's womb. As the authors state, some terms are ambivalent and interchangeable, such as ‘fetus’ and ‘child,’ or ‘pregnant woman’ and ‘mother.’ An explanation may be found in the Catholic belief that a fetus is a criatura with its own soul, a concept that contradicts modern legal definitions and is still a matter of debate. Rudimentos may be described as a paternalistic, racist, and gendered document that reflects the social hierarchies of colonial times.

As a frame of comparison, the final section includes excerpts taken from the writings of physicians and priests from other Spanish colonies. The most glaring difference among them is the approach taken by clergymen on one hand and physicians and surgeons on the other, due to their divergent objectives in performing the operation.

In summary, the combination of an excellent introduction, a clear translation of the documents included, and the detailed accompanying explanations results in an outstanding work that will interest specialists and instructors of various fields and be accessible to graduate and undergraduate students.