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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 09 2018, @10:28PM
That's a mischaracterization of this case though. He is challenging the societal consequences of said age more than the age itself (forced retirement, zero standing on the job market, insurance premiums). Yes, I'm sure he's looked at a few pages in the transgender playbook and playing them too. But that doesn't make him wrong, and I actually think it's quite ageist to dismiss his troubles with a "tough, suck it up" attitude as some seem to do.