There's no more room to bury the dead, they can't be cremated and laws forbid a new cemetery. So the mayor of this Brazilian farm town has proposed a solution: outlaw death.
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The bill, which sets no penalty for passing away, is meant to protest a federal law that has barred a new or expanded cemetery in Biritiba Mirim, a town of 28,000 people 45 miles east of Sao Paulo.
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A 2003 decree by Brazil's National Environment Council bars new or expanded cemeteries in so-called permanent preservation areas or in areas with high water tables. Environmental protection measures rule out cremation.
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Most of Biritiba Mirim sits above the underground water source for about 2 million people in Sao Paulo, de Campos said. The rest is covered by protected forest.
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"We have even buried people under the walkways," de Campos said, predicting that crypts will reach capacity in six months. "Look, people are going to die. A solution has to be found, or we'll have to break the law."
(CNN/AP)
Is burying people in other towns also outlawed? I can see not wanting to relocate the whole town, but relocating past or future dead to other cemetaries seems perfectly reasonable to me, and does not compromise the environment as could opening up new space for cemetaries or cremation.
I wonder if it'd be considered silly to impose the death penalty on dying without autorization?
ReplyDeleteI've heard, though I do not know the veracity, that in Puritan New England the penalty for attempted suicide was death. I also just saw the Mikado (Gilbert and Sullivan play) this weekend, in which they said the same. I suspect it's an urban legend, though Snopes does not identify it as such.
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