When CBS News visited Barbara Goodfriend's home in New Jersey, it was crowded with family and friends — a place that seemed full of life. So it was hard to process that it was also a place where she was determined to die just 24 hours later. "It's been a week of family, friends.
We've done a lot of crying, all of us, but we've laughed. We've enjoyed being together," Goodfriend said. Last April, Goodfriend was diagnosed with ALS, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis , a disease that attacks the nervous system and robs people of their muscle control.
The 83-year-old widow spent decades working in fashion while raising her only daughter. After a doctor told her she might not live through the fall, she deteriorated quickly and suffered falls that caused bruises on her face. Rather than suffer, Goodfriend has chosen what's known as "Medical Aid in Dying," or MAID.
A doctor prescribes a mixture of lethal medication. The patient must have six months or less to live, be of sound mind and must administer it themselves. The procedure is different than euthanasia — when a doctor gives a patient a lethal injection — which is illegal in the U.
S. Goodfriend says she doesn't want to die, but she also doesn't want to continue living with a terminal disease. "What am I going to give this up for? To be in a wheelchair? To have a feeding tube? I wish I had more time to live, but I don't want more time as a patient," Goodfriend said.
"I hope that something will get done, something will be acco.
