Birth has been and is now the universal, legal definition of the beginning of personhood and identity. Why is that, in your view?
Actually, I'm told it is not totally universal. My sister-in-law spent a year plus in the '70s deep in Papua living with the locals under some very interesting conditions.
She told me then that a new born is not given a name or considered a part of the family in a real way until they are a year old. If they die after a year there is a large village wide morning ceremony and so on; if they die under one year the body is dumped in the jungle. The infant motality rate is high and there doesn't seem to be any bonding or recognition of the child until they get past the first year.
I'd say that counts as a "legal" recognition of "personhood" at a point a year after birth.
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