Barbara Barrie’s daughter, Jane Harnick, is detailing the late actress’ final moments before her death by medically assisted suicide.
“She was so grateful that it had been instituted in New York State really in the nick of time,” Harnick told Page Six in an interview published on Friday, October 30, noting Barrie was a “huge advocate” for medical aid in death. “For years and years, her whole life before she was ever sick with any illness, she always used to say, ‘When my time comes, I just want to take something and go to sleep.’ She just really believed that that was a human right.”
Barrie died in New York with medical assistance on Wednesday, October 28, at the age of 95, three weeks after a terminal cancer diagnosis. (Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the “Medical Aid in Dying Act” in January to allow terminally ill adults to request life-ending medications from their physicians. The law went into effect in August.)
“She wanted it to be her path,” Harnick said of Barrie’s decision. “She was an advocate for a lot of things during her life, and to go out on this one is what she would have wanted. She had the most incredible life, she did everything she wanted to do, she had the family she wanted. It was 100 percent her decision, and we all supported it. She’s an advocate for that right.”
In addition to Jane, the Tony Award winner is survived by son Aaron Harnick. (Barrie shared her two children with late husband Jay Malcolm Harnick.)
Barrie was diagnosed with rectal cancer in the ‘90s and later revealed that she also suffered from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic and incurable lung disease. While speaking with Page Six, Jane revealed Barrie found out in early October that she had terminal cancer.
“We didn’t really know, but it just worked out that she went to the hospital three weeks ago.” Jane said. “She was declared terminal, and they said, ‘You can do this now.’ We were planning her death and her memorial at the same time and she was fine with it. She was weighing in on who should speak and what the music should be and she was really fine with that.”
She continued of her mother, “She was ready to go. She knew 95 was old enough. And then, at the very last day, she started to feel pain. They were able to time it so that they could do it right then.”
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