accident of birth

[vil]

Dear teachers,

I know that the word accident should not be confused with the word incident.

An accident is a chance event bringing injury or loss. It is very broad in its application. \, being used of events that involve persons or things, of injuries or losses, serious or slight; e.g.

He was injured or (crippled) in an accident; a railway accident; an accident in the street, etc.

There are many synonyms of the term “accidenet”: blow, calamity, casualty, chance, collision, contingency, crash, disaster, fate, fluke, fortuity, fortune, hazard, luck, misadventure, pile-up, prang, serendipity, shunt.

An incident is an occurrence of secondary importance, a happening having little relation to major evets.

The book contains a series of amusing incidents.
He was delighted and looked upon the incident as an adventure.

There are also many synonyms of the term “incident”: adventure, affir, episode, event, happening, instance, occation, occurrence, scene; clash, commotion, confrontation, disturbance, tight, mishap, skirmish.

Note the following phraseological combination commonly used with the noun accident.

to meet with an accident, e.g.

I met with an accident when I was travelling in the mountains last year.

Note that the verb to happen and not to be or any other, is generally used with the noun accident when one wants to say that there is an situation in which someone is injured or something is damaged without anyone intending them to be.

A terrible accident happened at the Sierra Mills.

Would you be kind enough explain to me the meaning of the expression bird by accident or accident of birth?

Accident of birth is a phrase pointing out that no one has any control of, or responsibility for, the circumstances of their birth or parentage. With a modern scientific understanding of genetics, one can reasonably call any human being's entire genome an accident of birth. The place of birth of a baby has an effect in immigration law of many nations, so that an 'accidental' birth in an airport lounge may entitle a person to a passport in later life.

It is not a geographical accident of birth that determines whether an individual or group is going to be rich or poor,…

Thank you in advance for your efforts.

Regards.

V.

[Neillythere]

Hi Vil

As in my previous posting on a different thread , you really MUST quote your sources.

I believe your quote to be directly taken from Wikipedia (which explains the expresion very well), but you omit the final paragraph, which says:

Accident of birth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"More broadly, gender, family circumstances, cultural background, access to education, inheritance rights, are all sorts of accidents of birth. Individual responsibility, from the age of majority certainly, is supposed to cut across all these matters."

Please, please read the full quote and remember to quote your references.

[vil]

Hi Neillythere,

First of all, I have to warn you, that I dislike being talked to like that. As far I know you aren’t a moderator or something of the same kind, so you shouldn’t be stand-offish and severe with me.

In my humble opinion there is a poor choice of sources concerning the matter in question. I made use of the following referenece:

accident of birth: Information and Much More from Answers.com

The hackneyed explanation “More broadly, gender, family circumstances, cultural background, access to education, inheritance rights, are all sorts of accidents of birth” probablywould sufficeso know-ledgeble person as you, but it didn’t come up to my requirements. I am sure, you are not the kind of a man you think you are. I am sure,you don’t know the proper meaning of the expression “accident of birth”. If you really knew it, you should tell me the details in plain English language. Unfortunately you contented yourself only by saying that this quote explains the expression in question very well. You must agree that this is so.

Could you give me an example for “accident of birth” with practical training, an example of life?

Regards.

V.

[Neillythere]

Hi Vil

Sorry you took my post so badly as to make a very personal attack on me, based on my simple pleading request that you "please, please quote your sources".

The reason posters are requested to quote sources, apart from the Forum Rules (which require sources to be quoted, for the Forum's protection) is that it helps the reader better understand the basis for your comments.

Many thanks for advising that you were quoting "Answers.com". They quote the reference for their comment as "Wikipedia", which is where I came across it.

I'm not sure that I can give many more examples of "accidents of birth" other than the ones already quoted by Wikipedia (in the full article, not just the final paragraph), except maybe, with reference to your earlier comment:

"It is not a geographical accident of birth that determines whether an individual or group is going to be rich or poor,…",

Where you are born, who your parents are etc are regarded as an "accident of birth", as specifically noted by Wikipedia, in the paragraph quoted.

I'm not sure, therefore, that someone born in a village in Sub-Saharan Africa rather than of wealthy parents in the USA would necessarily agree with you.

With reference to the Forum Rules, by which we all should abide, I would note the following:

Rule 2: Refrain from insult and swearing
In other words, don't attack people or their characters, or post swearing or profanity. Debates are welcome, especially debates that have substance. If your opponent's argument is truly weak, you shouldn't have to resort to insults. Posts of this sort will be deleted without notice.

Rule 5: Copyright
Please do not post complete articles. If you want to refer to an article, quote a small selection and add a link to the site. Always give your sources, and the URL where appropriate. Copyright applies to texts, pictures, etc and the site can be held responsible if people post things here that breach the laws.

Best regards
NT