I was interested to see an article in The Advertiser today titled “Two dead, single charge”.

The article revolves around the tragic circumstances of a pregnant woman passenger in a car being killed.  The driver of the car has been charged with causing her death, but under South Australian law, cannot be charged with killing the unborn child, as legally the child does not exist until he or she is born. Despite that legality, the road toll will show two deaths.

Attorney General John Rau is quoted as saying that he had “personally argued a case before the Supreme Court to extend the boundaries of this definition.”

I gather if someone, say, hits a pregnant woman in the stomach, which kills her baby, then he can be charged with hurting her, but has no case to answer for the death of the baby.

Of course this situation doesn’t make sense, and should rightly be fixed.  The only problem is, what if the woman kills, or has a doctor kill, her unborn baby, then, suddenly, our society says it is all fine.  I suspect that trying to come up with laws that reflect this contorted double standard would be very difficult.

This is a strange world we live in!