{"status":"success","siteTitle":"Assisted Lab\nLiving Archive of Assisted Dying","title":"\u2018Die Fliegeng\u00f6ttin\u2019 by Hansj\u00f6rg Schertenleib","slug":"die-fliegengottin","url":"https:\/\/assistedlab.ch\/textual\/die-fliegengottin","body":"<p>This novella narrates one day in the life of 83-year-old Dutch-born Willem de Wit and his Irish wife Eilis, who is five years younger than he is. They have been married for 56 years and promised each other that they would never put the other in a nursing home, but rather take care of each other at home as long as possible, and provide euthanasia if it were ever to become too much. This pact was triggered by Michael Haneke\u2019s film <em>Amour<\/em>, which Eilis and Willem had seen on television. They made a promise to each other that they would also \u2018redeem\u2018 themselves, as they put it, in a similar situation. And this case has come to pass: Eilis was diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s a few years earlier, and her health has deteriorated rapidly since then. Willem kept his promise and has been caring for her for almost two years. He is increasingly overwhelmed, so that throughout the day he keeps thinking about whether he should keep the promise. At the end of the novella, he stands by Eilis\u2019 bed with a pillow, ready to kill her, but he drops it at the last moment.<\/p><p>Euthanasia, as Willem and Eilis have promised each other, is not permitted in Switzerland, the author\u2019s home country, where only assisted suicide is legal. However, the Novella is set in Ireland, where all forms of assisted dying are prohibited. Willem and Eilis must therefore help each other die alone and outside the law, within the intimate framework of their relationship. Willem\u2019s self-sacrificing care for his wife is portrayed in detail, showing not only the physical but also the emotional strain as Eilis\u2019 personality increasingly fades due to Alzheimer\u2019s disease. A particular burden is the fact that she is no longer able to make a decision, so he alone must decide whether the euthanasia pact is still valid. It is of little help to him that the very condition she was always afraid of has occurred, because he has no reliable clues as to whether she is actually experiencing it as unbearably as she feared. He alone is in a position to decide the value of her existence, which illustrates the problematic nature of euthanasia in cases of advanced dementia. The mutually supportive promise of \u2018redemption\u2018 between Eilis and Willem thus deteriorates into a one-sided, exceedingly heavy burden for him. Why he does not ultimately kill Eilis is not clearly answered in the novella. Willem could either have refrained from doing so out of love, so as not to lose Eilis, for she does have moments when she recognises him and seems happy; or the reason could be his character trait of always shirking responsibility. The ending, typical of novellas, remains open. For Willem himself becomes physically weaker and increasingly forgetful, so that he will soon no longer be able to look after Eilis. This will once again confront him with the question of whether he will put her in a nursing home after all or carry out euthanasia.<\/p>","cover":{"ratio":0.72222222222222220988641083749826066195964813232421875,"url":"https:\/\/assistedlab.ch\/media\/pages\/textual\/die-fliegengottin\/e8d226a533-1713881204\/schertenleib_lexica-2410x-q90.jpg","caption":"\u00a9 AI, Lexica, 2024"},"toggles":[{"title":"Suggested citation","list":[{"text":"Die Fliegeng\u00f6ttin, Assisted Lab\u2019s Living Archive of Assisted Dying, tba ","link":null,"pathname":null}]},{"title":"Reviews","list":[{"text":"J\u00f6rg Magenau, Hansj\u00f6rg Schertenleib: \u2018Die Fliegeng\u00f6ttin\u2018 \u2013 Leben mit dem gro\u00dfen Vergessen, Deutschlandfunk, 2019","link":"https:\/\/www.deutschlandfunk.de\/hansjoerg-schertenleib-die-fliegengoettin-leben-mit-dem-100.html","pathname":"deutschlandfunk.de"},{"text":"Anne-Sophie Scholl, Das Gewicht eines Versprechens: Die neue Novelle von Hansj\u00f6rg Schertenleib handelt von Alzheimer, St.Galler Tagblatt, 2018","link":"https:\/\/www.tagblatt.ch\/kultur\/buch-buehne-kunst\/das-gewicht-eines-versprechens-die-neue-novelle-von-hansjorg-schertenleib-handelt-von-alzheimer-ld.1528105","pathname":"tagblatt.ch"},{"text":"Hansruedi Kugler, Hansj\u00f6rg Schertenleibs neues Buch: Am Ende lauert Sterbehilfe, Thurgauer Zeitung, 2018","link":"https:\/\/www.tagblatt.ch\/kultur\/am-ende-lauert-sterbehilfe-ld.1054785","pathname":"tagblatt.ch"},{"text":"Ronald Schneider, Die Grenzen des Helfens, Rheinische Post, 2018","link":"https:\/\/rp-online.de\/nrw\/staedte\/dinslaken\/ronald-schneider-empfiehlt-hansjoerg-schertenleib-die-fliegengoettin_aid-34687587","pathname":"rp-online.de"},{"text":"Markus W\u00fcest, Schmerzhaft sch\u00f6n, Basler Zeitung, 2018","link":"https:\/\/www.bazonline.ch\/schmerzhaft-schoen-432384892424","pathname":"bazonline.ch"},{"text":"Unknown author, Hansj\u00f6rg Schertenleib: \u2018Die Fliegeng\u00f6ttin\u2018, Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) Radio, 2018","link":null,"pathname":null}]},{"title":"Interest Group citations","list":[{"text":"Hansj\u00f6rg Schertenleib \u2018Die Fliegeng\u00f6ttin\u2018, EXIT INFO, n. 1, 2019","link":"https:\/\/www.exit.ch\/fileadmin\/user_upload\/download\/mitglieder-magazin\/exit-info_19-01_web.pdf","pathname":"exit.ch"},{"text":"Ein Tag wie ein Leben, Mecklenburgische & Pommersche Kirchenzeitung, 2019","link":"https:\/\/www.kirche-mv.de\/fileadmin\/mkz\/MPKZ_PDF_2019\/2019-23-MV.pdf","pathname":"kirche-mv.de"},{"text":"Romane \/ Gedichte \/ Erz\u00e4hlungen, Alzheimer Gesellschaft Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg e.V. Selbsthilfe Demenz, n. d.","link":"https:\/\/www.alzheimer-bw.de\/infoservice\/hoer-buecher-filme\/lesen\/romane-gedichte-erzaehlungen\/","pathname":"alzheimer-bw.de"}]}]}