German pop duo who last year said their wish was ‘to leave together’ had joint assisted death at their home in Grünwald
Alice and Ellen Kessler, the pop singing sisters who were famous in Europe in the 1960s, especially in Italy where they were credited for bringing glamour to the country’s TV network, have died aged 89.
The identical twins had chosen to have a joint assisted death at their home in Grünwald, close to Munich, on Monday, said Wega Wetzel, a spokesperson for Deutsche Gesellschaft für Humanes Sterben (DGHS), a Berlin-based assisted dying association.
In Germany, active euthanasia is banned but according to the constitution every person has the right to a self-determined death, a principle that encompasses the freedom to take one’s own life and use assistance provided voluntarily by third parties.
The sisters administered the life-ending drugs in the presence of a physician and lawyer, who then called the police. “The police come to check the situation and the circumstances, and if it’s all OK then it’s OK,” Wetzel said, adding that their decision had been made “over a long period of time and was well thought through. There were no mental health issues.”
