WASHINGTON (CNS) – Now that Vermont allows doctor-prescribed suicide, “the magnificent landscape of this state, which echoes life from its majestic mountains to its powerful waterways, no longer is reflected in the laws which govern the Green Mountain State,” said the head of the statewide Diocese of Burlington.

“Vermont is now identified as one of the few death states where it is legal for life to be terminated at its beginning and end stages,” said Bishop Salvatore R. Matano, May 20, after Gov. Peter Shumlin signed a bill legalizing physician-assisted suicide.