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from the does-the-pensioner-want-to-repay-his-benefits-and-go-back-to-work,-too? dept.
In the quixotic battle against old age, some people use skin care and spin class.
That’s not enough for Emile Ratelband, a 69-year-old who feels like he’s in his 40s. The Dutch pensioner is asking a court in his hometown of Arnhem, southeast of Amsterdam, to change his birth certificate so that it says he took his first breath on March 11, 1969, rather than on March 11, 1949. The judges heard his case Monday and promised they would render a verdict in the next several weeks.
Ratelband sees his request as no different from a petition to change his name or the gender he was assigned at birth — and isn’t bothered that this comparison might offend transgender people, whose medical needs have been recognized by the American Medical Association. It comes down to free will, he maintains.
I want to be recognized as an alien trapped in an Earthling's body.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by takyon on Friday November 09 2018, @06:35AM (13 children)
It's entirely possible that some variation of this could become "true" one day with anti-aging. You can only estimate a person's age from their appearance, DNA [soylentnews.org], skeleton, and other forensic clues, if you don't know their actual birth date.
If you introduce comprehensive anti-aging therapies, this could complicate things. We could see partial anti-aging where some aspects are treated while others continue to degrade. Or we could eventually see people permanently appearing to be in their 20s (or "newborn" on the cellular scale) regardless of their actual age.
You could see this applying to
genderbiological sex too. It is possible that improvements in biotechnology will eventually allow people to change their sex on command, including transforming their entire genome. Fully functional parts, swapping out mismatched bones, the whole package.None of this helps Emile Ratelband's case. Even if you could get a full bio sex change and get your relevant government IDs altered to reflect it, no amount of anti-aging (or naturally slow aging) changes the fact that you were officially born on a certain day. You need a time machine to change that, not anti-aging. And if you have a time machine, you don't need no stinking courts to tell you how to live. You could just take some tech back in time and rule the planet forever.
This is a stunt and the court should show him the door.
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(Score: 5, Funny) by takyon on Friday November 09 2018, @06:45AM (7 children)
TL;DR: "Age" can be fluid, but there is no such thing as birthdatefluid.
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(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 09 2018, @07:59AM (4 children)
You and the other poster Azuki whatever are both bigoted pieces of shit. I hope you fucking die.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Friday November 09 2018, @08:14AM (2 children)
Care to explain why?
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(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 09 2018, @08:19AM (1 child)
Shut up Nazi piece of shit
(Score: 5, Touché) by takyon on Friday November 09 2018, @08:32AM
Isn't that what you identify as?
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(Score: 4, Insightful) by NotSanguine on Friday November 09 2018, @10:09AM
You will get your wish. Absent injury or illness, they will both die from that whole "age" thing you're denying.
Moron.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 3, Funny) by DeathMonkey on Friday November 09 2018, @11:59PM (1 child)
...there is no such thing as birthdatefluid.
Well it's something now: my new favorite euphemism for semen.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday November 10 2018, @04:56PM
Associating semen to birth is like associating gamblers to jackpot, though. The odds are thin.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 3, Flamebait) by qzm on Friday November 09 2018, @07:56AM (3 children)
And now just replace age with gender.
See what a pig you are being?
Of course not.
Interestingly he has quite a solid point.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday November 09 2018, @08:17AM (2 children)
I covered gender in my comment.
Seems like you have no point whatsoever. But you can't see that.
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(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 09 2018, @08:21AM (1 child)
Shut up Nazi bigot
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 09 2018, @04:13PM
Someone is upset that people think he is a racist jackass.
(Score: 2, Funny) by fustakrakich on Sunday November 11 2018, @07:14PM
You can only estimate a person's age from their appearance, DNA, skeleton, and other forensic clues, if you don't know their actual birth date.
You can't cut him open and count the rings?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..