Black Woman Exploited, Used as Incubator

Adriana Smith was a healthy 30-year-old African American mother, a registered nurse, and in her eighth week of her 2nd pregnancy when she arrived on February 18, 2025, at Atlanta’s Northside Hospital’s emergency room complaining of a severe headache. Adriana’s knowledge of medicine, trusting her own body, and recognizing the pain as something more than a simple headache, were all dismissed by the hospital staff and she was sent home with pain medication. Several hours later she was rushed by ambulance to Emory University Hospital Midtown, Atlanta, Georgia. Once there the medical staff determined Adriana had suffered several blood clots to her brain, but it was too late to reverse the damage. On February 19, 2025, the hospital declared Adriana brain dead but stated that due to Georgia’s H.B. 481 (aka: the “LIFE Act, Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act), they were not allowed to take her off life support since fetal cardiac activity was detected from the eight-week-old embryo.

 

The hospital made no attempt to obtain consent from Adriana’s family or her partner, Adrienne, regarding her further care or whether they wanted to keep her on life support. In an unprecedented (for the gestational period) experiment unsupported by science the hospital exploited the situation and took possession of Adriana’s lifeless body and used her as an incubator until the embryo reached viability. This meant that Adriana’s body was forced by artificial means to continue the functions of the nervous system, endocrine system, cardiovascular system, respiratory system, digestive system, urinary system, and reproductive system. Since her immune system was not functioning it made her body extremely susceptible to several types of infections therefore requiring dose after dose of antibiotics. The artificial means used to keep Adriana’s body functioning as an incubator and suspended in time became insufficient for fighting off infections or postponing degradation, and the fetus was removed from her body at 22 weeks; she did not experience ‘giving birth’ to her second son, Chance.

 

The hospital providers did not follow the required ethical standards of informed consent and were not protecting the rights and welfare of Adriana. For care and treatment to continue the hospital providers are required to give a thorough explanation as to the purpose of treatment, the benefits, and risks to the patient and if the patient is unable to communicate, the staff is to defer to next of kin or family, as they become Adriana’s proxy. If the findings from this experiment are used in scientific journals or for medical advancement it will mirror a pre-regulation era when patient autonomy and life-or-death rights were ignored.

 

Citations

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Atlanta News First. (2025, December 22). STREAM LIVE: Father calls for changes to Georgia law after custody battle over his own child [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuU6ij64HzI

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EMRecruits. (n.d.). [Photograph of the main entrance and sign to the Northside Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia]. EMRecruits. https://www.emrecruits.com/hs-fs/hub/12846/file-1959086145-jpg/NEA/images/northside_hospita.jpg

Gringlas, S. (2025, May 21). A brain-dead woman's pregnancy raises questions about Georgia's abortion law. Georgia Public Broadcasting. https://www.gpb.org/news/2025/05/21/brain-dead-womans-pregnancy-raises-questions-about-georgias-abortion-law

Hughes, B.J. (2025, June 18). THIS is what the state put Adriana’s Smith little boy through. [Screenshot from video attached] [Status update]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/100006467751840/videos/pcb.4904166736475536/1260333235612872

Lewis, A., Quinn, G., & Mutcherson, K. (2025, September 10). Ethical controversies in the Adriana Smith case in Georgia: brain death/death by neurologic criteria in pregnancy. The American Journal of Bioethics, 26(1), 13-26. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2025.2554796

Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, H.B. 481, Georgia. (2019). https://www.legis.ga.gov/search?ch=1&d=1&ln=481&s=27&p=1

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Scott, R., Fasano, S., Weinberg, K., Coburn, L., & El-Bawab, N. (2025, December 11). ‘Nightmare’: Woman kept on life support for months due to abortion ban, mother says. ABC News. https://abcnews.com/US/nightmare-woman-life-support-months-due-abortion-ban/story?id=128252936

Smajdor, A. (2026, January 14). Whole body gestational donation, and the real life case of Adriana Smith. The American Journal of Bioethics, 26(1), 51-53. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2025.2594416