While Sophie Milosevic was denied the chance to make her mark on the world, her legacy has been enshrined in law.
Queensland mum Sarah Milosevic was 39 weeks pregnant with Sophie when a drunk and drug-affected driver crashed into the family’s car in 2014. The impact caused Milosevic to lose Sophie a few days later.
However, at sentencing, the loss of Sophie wasn’t recognised by the court and the driver escaped with a $950 fine.
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“She had a birth certificate, a death certificate, she even had a Medicare card issued,” Milosevic said of Sophie.
“She was recognised everywhere except when someone caused her death.”
A stillborn baby is recognised as an unborn baby over 20 weeks and needs to be registered with Births, Deaths and Marriages. In Queensland, it is also a legal requirement to arrange a burial or cremation for a stillborn baby.
For more than nine years, Milosevic campaigned for the Queensland government to change the law to recognise unborn babies who die in car accidents as the death of a person in court proceedings.
On Wednesday, state parliament passed “Sophie’s Law”, with courts now required to treat the death of an unborn child as an aggravating factor during the sentencing of offenders.
“This is a history-changing law,” Milosevic told 7NEWS.com.au.
“This change is significant and it encompassed everything we could have wanted and more.”
She said she felt “a sense of peace” now that the law has been passed.
“It’s done, we have secured her legacy and what we were fighting for. We are able to leave our child a legacy that she couldn’t leave herself,” she said.
“It’s been a really long road and we could have given up many times.
“But we couldn’t have given up, this was our promise to Sophie.
“I hope (this law) never has to be used. It’s huge to know it was done.”
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