They Have No Regrets As They Reach Their 18th Birthday Conjoined Twins Who TURNED Down The Chance To Be Separated - And Call Their Condition A 'Gift From God

They Have No Regrets As They Reach Their 18th Birthday Conjoined Twins Who TURNED Down The Chance To Be Separated - And Call Their Condition A 'Gift From God

Shivanath and Shivram Sahu Conjoined twins, who have just turned 18, have said they have no regrets after turning down the chance to be separated.

Following this, the twins - who are joined at the waist and share two legs and four arms - were approached by several doctors who offered to split them, but the duo are determined to remain together.

The pair, from Khenda Village in the Baloda Bazar district of India, were first brought to the attention of the international community after a video of them washing and dressing themselves was widely shared online in 2014.

They are now said to be too old for the operation but couldn't be happier with their decision.

Speaking to The media, Shivanath said: 'We can't get separated now even if we wanted to. It was possible when we were kids but now it is impossible. The doctors told us that we can't be operated on.

The pair were born in a tiny village near Raipur in central India and are worshipped by some as divine incarnations.

'But we don't want to do anything anyway. We want to stay like this. We have a very unique gift from God. We consider ourselves as two bodies but one soul.'

They are believed to share the same stomach but have independent lungs, hearts and brains. With practice they have learned to do all their basic daily chores with minimal fuss, including showering, eating, getting dressed and combing each other's hair.

They are able to walk down the stairs of their simple split-level home and even run on all six limbs to play cricket and other games with neighboring children.  

They are also talented academics and considered among the top students at their local school, much to the pride of their doting father, Raj Kumar.

The labourer, who is married to Srimati and has five daughters, is very protective of his two sons and was keen for them to stay together.  

Conjoined twins occur when the zygote, the initial cell formed by sexual reproduction, fails to completely separate.

It is thought to occur in roughly one in every 50,000 births, but just one per cent make it to their first birthday and two-thirds are stillborn.

See photos below.