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Hello, I'm Katja Adler from the BBC World Service.
This is the global story.
Parliament in the United Kingdom is preparing to vote on whether terminally ill adults in England and Wales can get help legally to end their lives fraught with ethical dilemmas.
So called assisted dying has long proved a divisive topic in the uk.
It's still very divisive.
Now the dramatic social change that new legislation could bring about is being compared to the legalization of abortion at the time, the abolition of the death penalty and the introduction of same sex marriage around the world.
It's already legal in some form in a growing number of nations.
What are the experiences there?
With me today is Dominic Hughes, the BBC's global health correspondent.
Hello, Dominic.
Hi there, Katja.
So this discussion of assisted dying, it's become massive in the UK at the moment, hasn't it?
I mean, it's really, it's a huge debate politically, but.
But also socially.
Yeah, it's almost like one of the last big liberal debates to be had in the UK.
We've seen big discussions over the last 40 years about things like equalities legislation, the death penalty, abortion, divorce, gay marriage.