69-Year-Old Dutch Man Seeks To Change His Legal Age To 49
Emile Ratelband, a 69-year-old motivational speaker from the Netherlands, has petitioned a court for permission to change his legal age — by altering his birth certificate to show he was born 20 years later than he really was.
Ratelband argues that he feels two decades younger than he actually is — doctors told him he has the body of a younger man, he says. While in most cases that compliment is rhetorical, Ratelband is taking a more literal approach. He also says having a younger age on paper would give him a boost in life and on dating apps.
He presented his argument before a judge on Monday.
According to the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, or AD, Ratelband told the court he would be happy to delay his pension benefits for 20 years, as a logical extension of his age change.
The judge expressed some skepticism but also noted that changing the sex on a birth certificate, as transgender people have the right to do, once was impossible and is now allowed.
Friday, November 9, 2018
What Can We Change about our Identities?
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2 comments:
Okay, so what's stopping someone from changing their legal age to that of a minor, and re-enrolling in primary schooling?
How would age of consent work, if people can simply choose for themselves what age they are legally? In many jurisdictions, sex between a minor and a legal adult is statutory rape, but sex between two minors is not.
How about things like taxes and claiming dependents? How about things like military service? How about things like retirement ages, or pensions?
If you can push your legal age back, presumably you could also push it forward...
So many things depend on your legal age, and being able to change it opens up a massive potential for abuse of the system.
I identify as a svelte, adorable, genius. How can I make sure people treat me accordingly?
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