Have you get wind that it ’s illegal to break in the inhuman distant reaches of Svalbard , Norway ? The reasoning is that , due to the permafrost , bodies laid to rest in this Arctic territorial dominion will not decompose and so salute a biological risk for future generations . However , this isnot really straight , especially the part about dying being outlawed . Nevertheless , the myth has spread quite far and is often report as fact . But this raises an obvious enquiry : is there anywhere else on Earth where it actually is illegal to kick the bucket ?

The short solution is a kind of dubious shrug . Over the years , various places have “ illegitimate ” dying , but the bit has been less an effort to legally punish those unhelpful mass who conk out ( anyone ) , and more an endeavor to attract attention to some elusive political or societal outcome .

For instance , in August 2015 , the mayor of the Italian hillside town of Sellia signalize an ordination thatforbadepeople to get “ sick within the municipality ” and made it clear that they were not allowed to die there either . Anyone catch defy this practice of law by not getting veritable health baulk could be fined € 10 a year .

On the face of it , this is a ludicrous rule that exact the impossible , but the law was fade with the aim of promote respectable lifestyles for local residents . Thelogicbehind it was that Sellia was shinny with a shrinking population , and so the police was introduced to encourage citizen to take better care of their wellness or face gamy revenue enhancement .

Similarly , in2000and2008 , two villages in France forbade their residents to decease . In both example , the local say-so could not get permission to elaborate their graveyards , so in objection , they decided to make the effect go off by discouraging death itself . The same tactic was adopted by the say-so ofBiritiba Mirim , in Brazil in 2005 , andFalciano del Massico , in Italy , in 2012 .

As you may conceive of , the undue nature of these bylaws finally lead in them gaining permit to dilate their graveyards .

Then there ’s the forbiddance on dying for purity reason . Although this is not something that is practiced too oftentimes these day , there are some diachronic representative where death has been interdict for religious reasons .

In Ancient Greece , the island ofDelos , now a UNESCO World Heritage site , was conceive so sanctified that efforts were take to keep it free from death and birth – basically anything relate to the untidiness of human creation . In the 6thcentury BCE , the Athenian leader , Peisistratus , ordered the graves on the island to be dug up , and later , anyone who was probable to die or about to give birth was escorted off the island .

The same need to keep sanctity shape the history of the Japanese island ofItsukushima(now Miyajima ) , which is considered sacred in Shinto traditional knowledge . For some metre , the only the great unwashed allowed to subsist on the island were Shinto non-Christian priest and priestess . If pilgrim bring down , they were proscribe from buy the farm or giving birth there , a rule that reflected Shinto theme about contamination , stemma , and disintegration . adverse to what is often thought , this rule was really abolished in 1868 ( it is often cited as the head start date of the law ) , but even today , entombment and cremations are not admit on the island .

What is clear from these example is that the prohibition of death , when unrelated to spiritual rule , has all been an effort to challenge local issues around wellness or the availability of burying blank space . So while they may be absurd on the expression of it , it is trial impression that sometimes the ridiculous can be very practical .

[ H / T : The Guardian ]