The ritual gives the following examples:
· "those who are dangerously ill through sickness or old age"
· "a sick person...before surgery whenever the surgery is necessitated by a dangerous illness"
· "elderly people...if they are weak, though not dangerously ill"
· "sick children...sufficiently mature to be comforted by the sacrament"
· "sick people who have lost consciousness or who have lost the use of reason...if ...they would have requested it if they had been in possession of their faculties"