accident of birth

plural accidents of birth

1. idiomaticA fact, situation, or personal characteristic, which may be desirable or undesirable, resulting from the circumstances into which a person was born, and which is therefore entirely beyond their control.

   "You're no brother of mine," she broke in. "At most it is an accident of birth I disown. I'll have no relationship with you of any sort."

   1910, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 4, in A Texas Ranger

   2 more examples

   [H]e said to himself that he was a very good-looking man, and could have adorned a much higher sphere in life than that in which the accident of birth had placed him.

   1899, Charles W. Chesnutt, “Uncle Wellington's Wives”, in The Wife of his Youth and Other Stories

   An accident of birth had made him a citizen of the United States—his father having owned a ranch which lay north instead of south of the Rio Grande.

   1915, Rex Ellingwood Beach, chapter 9, in Heart of the Sunset