Cemetery full, mayor tells locals not to die

Written by Darren Hewer

If you’re a strong opponent of governments attempting to legislate and control what citizens can and can’t do, you may not want to continue reading …

The mayor of a village in southwest France has threatened residents with severe punishment if they die, because there is no room left in the overcrowded cemetery to bury them.

In an ordinance posted in the council offices, Mayor Gerard Lalanne told the 260 residents of the village of Sarpourenx that "all persons not having a plot in the cemetery and wishing to be buried in Sarpourenx are forbidden from dying in the parish." It added: "Offenders will be severely punished." (Source: Reuters)

Of course such attempts to regulate death are ridiculous. Everyone, from the richest and most powerful in the world to the poorest and powerless, will die someday. Since this is a door that eventually we all must pass through, wouldn’t it be reasonable (despite the somewhat grim subject) to spend some time thinking about this before we are "at death’s door" so to speak? What do you expect to find on the other side of death’s door?

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