Adriana Smith’s Body Kept on Life Support to Carry Pregnancy

Adriana Smith with her older son. Credit: GoFundMe

Born at 25 weeks after 112 days on organ support, Chance Smith’s life began while his mother’s had already ended. Adriana Smith’s story raises urgent questions about consent, dignity, and reproductive rights in the United States.

Smith, a 31-year-old nurse and mother, collapsed at home in February after suffering severe headaches. She was diagnosed with blood clots in her brain and declared brain-dead at Emory University Hospital soon after. She was nine weeks pregnant. Although she had died, her body was kept on life support for over 16 weeks, not for her recovery, but to allow time for her foetus to develop.

On 13 June 2025, a baby boy named Chance was delivered by caesarean section at just 25 weeks. He remains in neonatal intensive care.

A Pregnancy Sustained by a Dead Body

The prolonged maintenance of Adriana Smith’s body represents one of the most medically intensive and ethically fraught cases of post-mortem pregnancy ever recorded. It also marks the third-longest duration a deceased pregnant person has been sustained on organ support worldwide.

Smith’s family said they were told her body could not be taken off life support due to Georgia’s LIFE Act, a state law banning abortion after six weeks and granting legal personhood to embryos and foetuses. While Georgia’s attorney general later stated the law did not apply in Smith’s case, the family maintains that hospital staff cited it as the reason for overriding their choices. 

Smith’s mother, April Newkirk, said:

“I’m not saying we would have chosen to terminate her pregnancy, but I’m saying we should have had a choice.”

Newkirk continued:

“We want the baby. That’s a part of my daughter. But the decision should have been left to us, not the state.”

What is the LIFE Act ?

Georgia’s House Bill 481, known as the LIFE Act, was passed in 2019 by Republican Governor Brian Kemp, but only came into effect following the US Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs ruling, which overturned Roe v. Wade. The law bans abortion once cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks, and grants the foetus full legal personhood, recognising “unborn children as a class of living, distinct persons.”

While cases like Adriana Smith’s remain rare, the LIFE Act is part of a growing number of foetal personhood laws across the U.S. that can conflict with the rights of pregnant individuals.

Chance’s Birth and Condition

Baby Chance was born via caesarean section at just 25 weeks gestation, weighing 1lb 13oz. He remains in neonatal intensive care and faces serious health risks related to extreme prematurity, potentially including visual impairment, mobility difficulties, and developmental delays.

Newkirk said: 

“He’s expected to be okay. He’s just fighting. We just want prayers for him. Just keep praying for him. He’s here now.”

Why It Matters

Adriana Smith’s death has reignited urgent conversations about medical consent, reproductive rights, and the unintended consequences of abortion bans.

Her family say they were grieving, yet powerless, forced to navigate a legal and medical system that denied them agency.

Adriana Smith is remembered as a daughter, a nurse, and a mother. Her son, Chance, begins life under extraordinary circumstances, shaped by a decision his family says they weren’t allowed to make.