Conjoined Twin Laid to Rest in Malta

Children carrying red and white carnations sang hymns Friday as a Malta village buried Rosie Attard, the conjoined twin who died as a result of an operation that allowed her sister to live.

Rosie and her sister, born in August with fused spines that left them joined at the abdomen, were known to the world by the names given them at a British hospital to protect their identities: Mary and Jodie.

The village of Xaghra on the Maltese island of Gozo granted the infant a state funeral in all but name, with crowds packing the church, lining the town’s main street and gathering in its square to honor the child--and her parents, who went to court to stop surgeons from separating the twins.

“We rejoice when we remember that the soul of Rosie is enjoying God, and after her earthly suffering now she has entered eternal beatitude,” said the bishop of Gozo, Msgr. Nikol Cauchi.

The twins were separated in a 20-hour operation at St. Mary’s Hospital in Manchester, England, on Nov. 6. Mary, the weaker of the two, died within hours.

Doctors had warned that without the surgery both girls would die. The babies’ parents, Michaelangelo and Rina Attard, opposed the surgery, saying their fate should be left in the hands of God. Doctors went to Britain’s High Court to win the right to perform the operation.

Children sang as the baby’s tiny white coffin was carried to the red-domed basilica of the Nativity of Our Lady in this devoutly Catholic community. Rosie’s parents kissed her coffin before it was carried away.

It was reported that the cemetery site where Rosie is buried is to become a shrine to unborn babies.

Jodie remains in Manchester. Doctors say she faces years of extensive surgery and skin grafts but eventually could have normal intelligence, be able to walk, have children and have an average life expectancy.