The surviving Gozitan conjoined twin, who 14 years ago was the subject of an ethical debate the world over, wants to become a doctor when she grows up.
“Shrewd, funny and voluble, she loves to cycle and swim. She is determined to become a doctor and has strongly-held opinions on most things,” The Daily Mail reported in the first ever interview with Gracie Attard.
I don’t feel guilty that I lived and she died... it wasn’t my decision
Gracie, now a lively teenager, fell under the media spotlight 14 years ago as the Siamese twin whose sister died so she could live.
On August 8, 2000, Gracie and Rosie were born at St Mary’s hospital in Manchester, fused at the lower end of their spines and abdomen, with each twin having two arms and two legs positioned at right angles to their common trunk.
Rosie had a large ineffective heart and severely underdeveloped lungs, among other abnormalities, and died shortly after the operation which separated the twins, amid great controversy.
Gracie told the Daily Mail that she got to know about her and her twin sister’s story over time, but her parents regularly took her to the cemetery where Rosie was buried.
Gradually she was old enough to read the newspaper stories archived on the internet. “I read the stories and it felt as if I was reading a book about someone else. I didn’t exactly feel detached, but I wasn’t really involved either,” she told The Daily Mail.
“I don’t feel guilty that I lived and she died because what happened wasn’t my decision. I haven’t cried, but there is sadness. Sometimes I want her to be with me. We were the same age. We’d probably think like each other.”
Asked what she would like to do in future, she replied: “I’d like to be a doctor, perhaps a children’s doctor, because I want to help people. Maybe it’s because doctors saved my life, but I think I’d want to anyway.”
The Siamese twins story hit the headlines when their strictly-Catholic parents, Michaelangelo Attard, then 44, and his wife Rina, then 29, originally opposed surgery to separate the girls, saying their fate should be left in the hands of God. However, regardless of parental consent, the hospital medical team resorted to the court.
Surgeon Adrian Bianchi had told The Sunday Times of Malta that since this was a question of separating two children, one of whom would definitely die, his team was advised by solicitors that their actions could be considered to amount to murder.
Subsequently, the Court of Appeal, after many a “sleepless night”, ruled that Rosie was “living off time borrowed from her sister” which was putting a strain on Gracie’s heart. All three judges concluded that the operation could be lawfully carried out. The parents then accepted this decision.
Rosie died shortly after the operation and her funeral in Xagħra was covered worldwide.
The Attards had added fuel to the controversy when they decided to sell their story exclusively to the British media – including the Daily Mail – in a deal brokered by publicist Max Clifford.
The family said the money would go towards a trust fund to pay for Gracie’s continuing care.
They have steadfastly refused to speak to Maltese media. The couple had another daughter, two years later, also named Rosie.