Contrary to popular belief there's, in general, a shortage of children to adopt in the United States. Most of the children open for adoption have several needs that a random single man without any child development experience may have trouble meeting.
This person is 72 years old. Maybe people don't understand what parents mean by "kids take a lot of work". Take everything you do right now and double it. Maybe triple it, because it's harder when they don't know what they're doing at all and you need to teach as you go. All your household chores: double. Work: double (homework). Getting friggin' dressed in the morning: double. Wake up extra early too because school starts at 7:30 and they can't eat their own breakfast in a timely fashion, let alone make it.
That's not to mention that at 72 years old, there's a good chance he's going to keel over and leave that child fatherless pretty soon. Super traumatically too because guess who's going to find his body after he passed in his sleep?
- Adoption/fostering isn't actually a guarantee for all people. It's a challenging process that may or may not be successful.
- Just some gentle advice: mentioning "just adopt" to people suffering infertility is considered a faux-pas. It's best to avoid it.