A small town in the Calabria region of Italy has recently passed a law that prohibits dying.
Sellia, a medieval hillside Italian town used to have a population of about 1500 in the 1960s. Cut to the present day, Sellia’s population has come down to a little over 500, with a majority of the residents aged above 65. This demographic situation has led to the passage of a drastic law, whereby staying healthy is not a matter of good hygienic practice.
Mayor Davide Zicchinella recently ruled that it is now illegal for the town’s residents to get sick and die.
Despite being aware of the difficulty associated with enforcing this law, the idea behind such a legislation is to ensure that people take better care of themselves, so as to not result in an impending depopulation.
The law lays down that those who opt for regular medical check-ups will be exempt from the annual health tax of 10 euros. As for those who don’t take better care of their health, or opt for taking up habits that are bad for their health, they are required to pay extra taxes.
The criminalization of illness has triggered a positive response within the community, with 100 new appointments for check-ups at the local clinic.
Sellia, however, is not the first town in history to have banned death within it’s limits. In the past, legislations against dying have been passed at towns in France, Brazil, Japan, and Spain, for a variety of reasons, though mostly related to there being inadequate burial space.
The earliest case of prohibition of death occurred in the 5th century BC, in the Greek island of Delos, where dying was prohibited on religious grounds.
Today, in most cases, the prohibition of death is a satirical response to the government’s failure to approve the expansion of municipal cemeteries.
Despite this measure being seemingly absurd, the intention behind this legislation is to save the town itself. With population at an all time low, criminalization of illness urges people to take more caution when it comes to health, and in turn saves the town from being depopulated.
Do you think making dying a crime is an effective measure to keep us from dying?
