Overview
- The German Society for Humane Dying confirmed the twins died on Nov. 17 at their home in Grünwald near Munich after applying for assistance and holding preliminary consultations with a lawyer and a doctor.
- A doctor present confirmed the procedure to DGHS, and local police reported a deployment to the residence and found no signs of foul play after being notified.
- DGHS said the decision was longstanding, free of psychiatric crisis, and likely driven by the wish to die together on a chosen date.
- Assisted suicide is permitted in Germany under a 2020 Constitutional Court ruling that requires decisions to be voluntary and free from coercion, with patients self-administering prescribed medication.
- Alice and Ellen Kessler were internationally known in the 1950s and 1960s, performing with stars such as Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire and Harry Belafonte, as tributes from the Ed Sullivan Show account and Radio Monte Carlo noted.