The head of an Italian Catholic health institute offered yesterday to grant hospitality to the Siamese twins whose fate has become a political issue in Britain, Philip Willan reports from Rome.
The twins, who are joined at the abdomen, were born in Manchester on August 8th. Their parents have appealed against a British high court ruling that they should be surgically separated, an intervention that only one of the babies could survive.
"We have expressed our readiness in principle but we need to know what kind of assistance would be necessary," said Father Matteo Solaroli, director of the Institute of St Theresa of the Child Jesus in Ravenna. Father Solaroli said the institute, which assists the poor and the disabled, could provide accommodation for the children - identified in court only as Jodie and Mary - and their parents. "But we don't have the clinical equipment needed."
The offer is the result of mediation by Cardinal Ersilio Tonini, the emeritus archbishop of Ravenna, who was contacted by Britain's anti-abortion movement. "The parents are Catholic and I was asked if there was an institution able to help them," Cardinal Tonini said. "The Institute of St Theresa is ready to receive them, free of charge." Siamese twin girls from Peru were operated on in Palermo three months ago. The controversial operation was intended to save the life of the stronger of the twins, but neither of them survived.