No Room At Cemetery, So Mayor Proposes Ban On Death

No Room At Cemetery, So Mayor Proposes Ban On Death

POSTED: 2:26 pm EST December 13, 2005
UPDATED: 3:45 pm EST December 13, 2005

BIRITIBA MIRIM, Brazil -- 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.

Mayor Roberto Pereira da Silva's proposal to the town council asks residents to "take good care of your health in order not to die" and warns that "infractors will be held responsible for their acts."

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.

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

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