[swwatch]

In some societies men and women are not equal at birth. For example, under the One Child Policy in China, there were many reported cases of female infanticide due to the perception that a boy is more valuable in economic and societal terms than a girl.

In terms of rights of individuals at birth, there may be some semblance of this within certain idealised states, but as soon as you consider the differences in conditions (economic, societal, legal) across countries, the idea goes out the window. Everybody has the right to life, one may say, but then how can this be justified when comparing things like access to food, water, medication, safe conditions for birth etc. between developed and developing countries. One can be disadvantaged prior to being born in a country which does not have hospitals with proper sanitation, drugs, or appropriately trained professionals for example. Or what about children who are born with HIV and are immediately discriminated against, or children whose mothers were raped and are treated not as victims but blamed for their misfortune, with the children as unwanted pariahs. In this context rights seem like just a luxury for the privileged...