Reason why some towns around the world have tried to make dying illegal

There are a number of places in the world that have tried to make dying illegal, but - as bizarre as it sounds – there is some logic in it.

There are many things that are pretty universally frowned-upon, like murder and playing tunes out of your phone’s speakers on the bus.

But kicking the bucket tends to be something relatively outside of our control – not that it’s stopped some places trying to outlaw it.

Back in 1999, the mayor of a village in Granada, southern Spain, announced he had banned death.

The edict was a bit of a tongue-in-cheek way of getting someone to pay attention to overcrowding at the local cemetery in Lanjaron, with Mayor Jose Rubio telling locals to ‘take utmost care of their health so they do not die until town hall takes the necessary steps to acquire land suitable for our deceased to rest in glory’.

It added: "It is hereby forbidden to die in Lanjaron."

A similar thing happened six years later in a Brazilian town called Biritiba Mirim, where Mayor Roberto Pereira da Silva proposed outlawing death after becoming frustrated that there was no room to bury the dead.

Locals found themselves at something of an impasse, as laws prohibited anyone from building a new cemetery – all thanks to a 2003 decree by the country’s environment council that banned new or expanded cemeteries in preservation areas, or regions with high water tables.

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In his proposal to the town council, Pereira da Silva explained how ‘infractors will be held responsible for their acts’, calling on residents to take good care of their health ‘in order not to die’.

The bill stated that 'offenders will be held responsible for their acts', but it did not reveal what the punishment would be.

At the time, Gilson Soares de Campos, an aide to the mayor, said: "Of course, the bill is laughable, unconstitutional, and will never be approved.

"But can you think of a better marketing strategy... to persuade the government to modify the environmental legislation that is barring us from building a new cemetery?"

While at least 20 towns within 100km of Biritiba Mirim faced the same problem, De Campos said no others had ordered locals not to die.

John Kelly/Alamy Stock Photo

Over in Norway, meanwhile, there is a town in Svalbard called Longyearbyen that has mistakenly been reported to have outlawed dying.

However, death isn't illegal as such, it's believed that it just poses a bit of a problem when it comes to burials.

As it is so cold, bodies struggle to decompose even when they're more than a century old - as researchers found when they gathered samples from the local cemetery, which contained victims of the 1918 influenza virus.

An explanation from TheNorwayGuide says: "You will not be allowed to be buried on Svalbard due to the permafrost that prevents bodies from decaying, and people on the verge of death are usually flown to mainland Norway for better treatment."