We all know it’s nearly impossible to make ourselves younger by age physically, even more so legally. But this didn’t stop a Dutchman, who wanted to change his age and ‘become’ younger. Emile Ratelband, a 69-year-old Dutch man, wanted to change his age to 49, citing the fact that his old age led to discrimination in employment and his Tinder account.
He claimed that due to the day and age where people could change their names and genders, he said that he should be able to change his age as well. It seemed that he would also look and feel at that age, since he also claimed that he was in good health and that his doctors said that he has the body of a 45-year-old. And with that health and body, he claimed to be a ‘young god’ – at the age of 49 that is.
The reason behind the whole age-changing decision was when he looked at himself in the mirror and decided last year that he wanted to make the most of his life and time as possible. In addition, Ratelband felt that he wanted more freedom with his life choices; if he were 20 years younger he would feel more free to buying cars and houses, take up more work, and improve his chances of landing successful Tinder dates, which lines up with his other large goal of starting another family.
Currently, he is the father of 7 children. Still, that hasn’t stopped him from interviewing at least 20 women to be surrogate mothers.
However, his request of changing his age was rejected by the court, as it was not possible and there would be legal issues. One of the judges even asked Ratelband on how they would fill in the 20-year void when he was growing up as a child, as changing Ratelband’s age would erase his first 20 years of his life from the records (if we’re going by his old age). Yet Ratelband is determined to have his age changed and is bringing this case up to the court in Arhem, with a ruling expected within 4 weeks, as of November 8, 2018. He even stated that he would give up his pension for the exchange of a younger age.
On the side note, Ratelband is currently a media personality and is known for his 12 motivational books. According to his website, he was once a millionaire at the age of 21 but lost his money and declared bankruptcy 16 years later. His life goal was to live at least to the age of 94 and wanted to be healthy with the world in a better place once he’s gone.
It seems that no matter how happy and healthy one may live their lives, their age will eventually catch up to them.
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