Imagine living in a town where dying is not allowed. It sounds strange, but this is true in a small Norwegian town called Longyearbyen.
Longyearbyen is on the island of Svalbard, far up north near the Arctic. There’s a special rule there; if you’re very sick or near death, you’re asked to leave the town for treatment somewhere else. It’s not because they want to control who dies, but because of serious practical reasons.
The town is small, with just over 2,000 people, and the weather is extremely cold. The ground there is frozen all year round, which is called permafrost. Because the ground never thaws, bodies buried in it don’t decompose. This can cause health and safety problems.
So, while it’s not exactly “illegal” to die in Longyearbyen, people who are seriously ill are encouraged to go to the mainland. This unusual rule helps protect the town and the environment from potential issues.
The frozen ground in Longyearbyen makes it very hard to bury people. Digging graves is almost impossible because the ground is always frozen. For a long time, people who died there were buried in a local cemetery. But in the 1950s, something surprising was discovered. Scientists dug up a body and found that it was still almost perfectly preserved, like it hadn’t been buried for long at all.
This caused serious concerns. Some of the bodies in the cemetery were from people who died in the 1918 Spanish flu, a virus that killed many around the world. Because the bodies hadn’t rotted, there were fears that the virus might still be alive and could spread again.
To avoid this danger, the town made a rule: if someone becomes seriously or terminally ill, they should leave Longyearbyen to get medical help elsewhere. This way, they don’t have to deal with the problem of burying bodies in frozen ground, where they can’t break down naturally.
It’s not just about rules
This rule might sound strange, but it’s really about keeping people safe. Longyearbyen is very far away and doesn’t have big hospitals. The freezing weather also makes caring for very sick people and planning funerals hard. So, the rule is meant to help the town avoid health risks and keep things running smoothly for everyone living there.
Living in Longyearbyen means getting used to a tough and cold way of life. It’s a small town with few people and limited services. The weather is very harsh, especially in winter, and the town is far from other places, so people there must adjust to being isolated.
The rule about death is just one of several unusual laws that help the community live safely and comfortably in such extreme conditions.