The Pro-Life Alliance in Britain yesterday condemned Granada Television's "unseemly haste" in deciding to broadcast an interview with the parents of the conjoined twins, Jodie and Mary, before the inquest into Mary's death.
In a special edition of last night's Tonight with Trevor McDonald programme, Michaelangelo (44) and Rina Attard (29) spoke of the anguish of losing their daughter and their hopes for the surviving twin, Jodie, who is growing stronger at St Mary's Hospital in Manchester.
In a deal with Granada TV the parents, from the Mediterranean island of Gozo, were paid £150,000, which will be put into a trust fund for Jodie, but the Pro-Life Alliance believes the programme should not have gone ahead.
A spokeswoman for the group, Ms Josephine Quintavalle, told The Irish Times the programme made many people feel uncomfortable. "I do not think it is appropriate to show an interview at this time," she said. "Everybody has been dragged into this tragedy, and in a way it is a public concern, and you have to take these steps very advisedly.
"It is very unseemly haste for Granada to show this before, as I understand it, Mary has been buried and before the inquest. I am criticising the timing. It is indecent timing." There was concern also about Granada's decision to pay the parents for the interview. Ms Quintavalle said sections of the community on Gozo and the Catholic Church were concerned that money "has come out of something not ethically accepted" and she accused the programme-makers of "a lack of sensitivity" with regard to local feeling that the parents should not have been paid.
Granada TV denied the programme was "unethical", insisting the courts would not have lifted a ban on naming the parents, enabling the interview to go ahead, if it had been concerned about the programme's treatment of the subject.
The twins were born in August joined at the abdomen, and doctors told their parents that unless they were separated both girls would die. If an operation to separate them was successful then Jodie would survive but Mary, the weaker twin, would die.
The parents opposed the operation on religious grounds but gave up their legal battle when judges ruled the operation could go ahead.
In the interview, Mr Attard said that after the operation he could not believe Mary was dead "but you have to accept that she is". His wife, Rina, said she felt encouraged that Jodie would eventually return home.