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posted by martyb on Friday November 09 2018, @05:52AM   Printer-friendly
from the does-the-pensioner-want-to-repay-his-benefits-and-go-back-to-work,-too? dept.

Washington Post:

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.


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  • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Friday November 09 2018, @11:54PM

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 09 2018, @11:54PM (#760147) Journal

    I disagree. The name, description, and apparently genetics, of a venus flytrap is human defined.

    The genetics of the living thing to which that name and associated description are predominantly applied are something that come from without humanity; aliens, gods, angels, or demons could as easily recognize the sequence of its genome as can we. Our society does not determine it, nor does any part of humanity. When we refer to it, we simply recognize it, or fail to, as the case may be.

    Therefore, it is a social construct.

    That's not how that works. Your disagreement is noted, however,

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