By Marta Pascual Juanola

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Remi Matthew Aldridge had a birth and death certificate, two loving parents and an older stepbrother eager to take him under his wing. But under Victorian law, he is not considered a person.

He died 34 weeks in utero after a four-wheel-drive allegedly ran a stop sign and crashed into the Ford Territory that his pregnant mother, Elodie Aldridge, was driving near Shepparton East on October 20.

Remi died shortly after, having never seen the world. Five-year-old Shepparton girl Savannah Kemp, a passenger in the four-wheel-drive, was also killed.

Elodie Aldridge snapped her femur and wrist in a car crash, and also sustained extensive catastrophic internal injuries.Credit: Justin McManus

The driver of the car, 26-year-old Chrystle Olivia Kemp, has been charged with a string of offences, including dangerous driving causing Savannah’s death and dangerous driving causing injury to Remi’s mother. She is yet to enter a plea.

But because Remi never took his first breath, he cannot be considered a child under current legislation and Kemp cannot be charged over his death. Instead, his death forms part of the injuries inflicted on his mother.

If the crash had happened less than 60 kilometres away, in New South Wales, Remi would have been considered a separate person and Kemp may be facing charges over his death.

When authorities told Aldridge and her husband Andrew that Remi would not be considered a separate person, they were in disbelief.

“I just broke down. I could not hear that my baby was not considered a human being,” Aldridge said, fighting back tears.

“He was alive in my belly, he was ready to come. He was moving, we heard his heartbeat. I cannot understand why he’s not considered a baby, a human being. I just can’t hear it.”

Aldridge had just attended a midwife appointment in Wangaratta and was driving to Shepparton to meet her husband – to share the news that Remi was healthy, had fully formed lungs and could be born anytime – when the crash occurred.

“He was pretty big, so they let me know to get ready. That he could come earlier. Well, I guess he did, but not the way we expected it,” she said.

The impact seriously injured Aldridge, snapping her femur and wrist and leading to extensive catastrophic internal injuries and bleeding, which starved Remi of blood flow and caused his death.

Aldridge, 32, was flown to Melbourne, where surgeons attempted to stem the bleeding and surgically removed Remi.

“I went and met him, I held him. He was perfect. All I wanted him to do was to open his eyes,” Andrew Aldridge said. “I sat beside Elodie’s bed and did not move for two days, washed the drool from her mouth, washed the blood out of her hair.”

I could not believe it. I just broke down. I could not hear that my baby was not considered a human being.

When Aldridge woke in the hospital’s intensive care unit, battered and bruised, her husband had to tell her three times that Remi had died.

“I didn’t want to believe it,” she said.

The couple was able to spend three days with their boy before he was taken away.

NSW passed legislation recognising unborn children with a gestational age of at least 20 weeks as victims of crime in 2021 after a protracted battle helmed by Brodie Donegan, who lost her unborn daughter Zoe after a crash in 2009.

Donegan was run over by a drug-affected driver on Christmas Day 2009 while she was 32 weeks pregnant with Zoe and – as with Remi’s case – legislation in NSW at the time did not consider a fetus as a human being.

The Aldridges are now pushing the Allan government to introduce similar laws in Victoria so that children like Remi can be recognised as people and anyone who causes their deaths can be held responsible.

“He’s got his birth certificate, he’s got his death certificate, he’s got his own Transport Accident Commission claim, but he is not classed as a baby in the eyes of the law,” Aldridge said.

The Aldridges want Victoria to recognise unborn babies as legal persons.Credit: Justin McManus

“We feel no parent should go through this. It will not change our scenario, but it might help someone else one day.”

Donegan knows that feeling all too well. For her, being able to hold someone responsible for the death of her child seemed like common sense.

“Zoe counted towards the road toll in NSW that year. The glaring gap was that she just wasn’t recognised in the court proceedings and I felt that it didn’t allow you to properly grieve,” she said.

“When there’s no one held accountable, and your baby’s just viewed as an injury to you, it feels like it’s all downplayed.

“It doesn’t recognise the importance of what you have lost. I guess we pursued the law because we wanted her death to not have been in vain.”

A grief-stricken Donegan fought for 12 years for Zoe’s Law to be introduced, as debate raged between pro-life campaigners and women’s rights advocates about the impact the legislation could have on abortion rights.

Brodie Donegan lost her unborn baby after she was hit by a car.Credit: Natalie Grono

“I do feel more at peace,” she said. “I just didn’t want anyone else to be in the same position that we were.”

Attempts to introduce legislation similar to Zoe’s Law in Victoria could face similar opposition.

Heather Douglas, a professor at the University of Melbourne’s law school, said the main concern with recognising a fetus as a separate person from the mother under the law was the impact the legislation could have on women’s reproductive rights, particularly in late-term abortions.

“Although understanding the fetus as a body part of the woman is problematic, understanding the fetus as separate from the mother is also problematic,” Douglas said.

Douglas said any new legislation would need to have clear safeguards in place to protect women’s choices and doctors performing late-term abortions.

“The worry is a philosophical worry of this opening up the question of recognition of the fetus as a fully fledged legal person with rights.”

A small wooden box containing Remi’s ashes sits on the TV cabinet of the Aldridges’ Katunga home, next to a framed picture of an imprint of his feet. A stocking adorned with his initials hangs from the Christmas tree, but his presents are no longer at its base – a painful reminder of their loss.

For the couple, introducing a law recognising Remi as a human being is about getting the closure to be able to grieve.

“I just want people to know that he was a victim as well. It’s not just the little girl, it’s not just me. He was there too,” Aldridge said.

Support is available from the PANDA National Helpline on 1300 726 306.

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