The Grim Reaper has got his work cut out in Sellia in southern Italy, thanks to a decree ordering the village's elderly and dwindling population to stay in good shape. “Human life is naturally valuable, but here it has a social value as well because every person who dies takes us a step closer to the village no longer existing,” Mayor Davide Zicchinella told AFP. Poverty-struck Calabria, which in 2014 had the highest rate of unemployment in Italy, has slashed health care funding, “leading to a notable reduction in services”, with Sellia losing 100,000 euros ($108,000) from its budget in five years.
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Italian medieval village orders elderly to defy death