Sophie Ella, Miles Field and Remi Aldridge. Three names. Three lives lost. Three tragedies. These children were not victims of disease or natural disaster, they were killed in car crashes caused by reckless drivers. However, in the eyes of Australian law, they weren’t recognised as people. Why? They had not been born.
Sophie was 38 weeks. Remi was 34 weeks. Miles, 24 weeks. Each of them had a heartbeat, growing bodies, and expectant parents. Under Australian law, these children were not recognised as legal persons. As such, the justice system effectively discriminated against them based solely on their physical location—inside the womb.
A Step Forward: Sophie’s Law and the Fight for Recognition
In 2014, the death of Sophie Ella Milosevic ignited a movement. Her parents, Sarah and Peter, were devastated not only by the loss of their daughter but also by the refusal of the justice system to acknowledge her life.
Out of that grief came a campaign—”Sophie’s Law”. They presented a petition with over 90,000 signatures to Queensland’s then Attorney-General, Labor MP Yvette D’Ath.[i] However, it was in 2016 that support from the government gained momentum, especially through the work of Jim McDonald, the LNP member for Lockyer.[ii] After nearly a decade of persistence and advocacy, Sophie’s Law was finally passed in 2023. It required courts to consider the death of an unborn child as an aggravating factor in sentencing.[iii]
This Queensland case mirrored a similar legislative push in New South Wales, led by Christian Democratic Party MP Fred Nile. In 2014, Nile introduced “Zoe’s Law,” named after Zoe, the unborn daughter of Brodie Donegan, who died at 32 weeks’ gestation.[iv]
When the Law Still Falls Short
In 2024 tragedy struck again. Haylee Loccisano was 25 weeks pregnant when a reckless driver crashed into her car. Haylee survived after being placed in a coma. Her unborn daughter, Celeste, tragically did not.[v]
The case was one of the first tried under Sophie’s Law. Yet the result—a mere 100 hours of community service, six months’ licence suspension, and no recorded conviction for the perpetrator — left Celeste’s family heartbroken. So, while Sophie’s Law has changed how the courts can view such cases, it still stops short of full recognition.
The Real Issue: Personhood
At the heart of the matter lies the legal definition of personhood. According to Queensland’s Criminal Code:
“A child becomes a person capable of being killed when it has completely proceeded in a living state from the body of its mother…”[vi]
In plain terms: no matter how developed, viable, or cherished a child may be, until they physically leave the womb, they are not a person under criminal law.
This legal fiction is deeply distressing for parents like Elodie Aldridge, who lost her son Remi at 34 weeks. As she learned her son had fully formed lungs and was days away from delivery, she also learned he was not considered “human” under the law. Administrative law offers some solace—parents can receive stillbirth certificates. But criminal law? Silence.
The Elephant in the Room: Abortion
Why, then, hasn’t this glaring inconsistency been resolved nationwide? The elephant in the room – abortion.
Former Queensland Minister of Health and pro-abortion MP Shannon Fentiman expressed “heartfelt sympathy for the Milosevic family and fully understand their desire to achieve some meaningful change in the name of their daughter Sophie,” yet she still noted it was “an incredibly complex issue.”[vii] In truth, the core issue is straightforward: whether unborn children should be afforded equal protection under the law.
According to The Conversation, legislators and legal scholars remain cautious about formally recognising unborn children in criminal law due to concerns that such recognition could “negatively impact reproductive rights or could result in liability for a pregnant mother.”[viii]
The Bottom Line: Wanted vs. Unwanted
If Sophie, Zoe, Miles, Celeste, and Remi had been born just days earlier, their deaths would have led to manslaughter charges. Instead, the law shrugs. But they were real. They had names. They had parents. They had futures. And they deserved justice.
Here lies the tragic contradiction in Australian law: the life of an unborn child is protected only if they are wanted. The very same child, at the very same gestational age, can be grieved as a son/daughter or discarded as a choice. This means that as long as our legal system continues to draw a legal line based on wontedness there will always be injustice to countless lives.
