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Watch part two
The debate over whether "aided dying" should be allowed has been ignited once again in the US and Europe.
A law allowing physician-assisted suicide took effect in the state of Washington this week.
Washington is now just the second state in the US, after Oregon, to allow this.
Supporters of this new "death with dignity" legislation say the law allows for "aided dying" rather than assisted suicide or euthanasia.
Physicians in the northwest state will be allowed to write prescriptions for lethal doses of drugs for terminally ill patients who have less than six months to live.
In Europe the issue was back in the headlines after the assisted deaths of a British couple in a Swiss clinic.
The couple are the first Britons to die at the controversial Dignitas clinic since the UK's top judge signalled that anyone helping a terminally ill person to organise an assisted suicide abroad would not be prosecuted.
Under Swiss law anyone who assists a suicide faces questioning to ensure that no crime has been committed.
On Monday Riz speaks to Peter Saunders, the director of Care Not Killing which is opposed to assisted deaths.
Also joining the programme, Terry Barnett, the president of the Washington branch of Compassion and Choices advocacy group which supports aided dying.
This episode of the Riz Khan show aired on Monday, March 9, 2009.
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