In recent months, the story of Adriana Smith has shaken the United States. Smith, a 25-year-old nurse from Georgia, was declared brain dead while nine weeks pregnant. Instead of allowing her family to honour her dignity and let her rest, doctors kept her on life support for months, treating her as a vessel for the foetus she carried. Her family was left grieving in public, stripped of agency, and forced to navigate a system that valued politics and legal fear more than human compassion.

The full report can be found here: KENS5 news coverage of Adriana Smith.

The Family Was Ignored

Smith’s mother, Adriana’s grandmother, spoke with raw clarity: “I want them to know that this didn’t have to happen. I want them to know that the law needs to be changed. It doesn’t need to be altered. It doesn’t need to be in effect at all. Women have rights; it’s their body.”

Her words reveal the profound injustice. The family asked to make decisions for their loved one but found themselves blocked at every turn. At one point, they were even threatened with being barred from the hospital if they continued to push back. Their grief was met not with compassion but with hostility, as if they were intruders rather than the rightful decision-makers.

The Law Was Not Clear, Yet It Was Weaponised

The Georgia Attorney General’s office eventually released a statement confirming that the LIFE Act, the state’s abortion ban, “does not require doctors to maintain life support after a patient has been declared brain dead.” In other words, the law did not mandate what was happening to Adriana Smith.

This is critical. There was no legal reason for Emory Healthcare to keep Adriana’s body functioning by machine. The decision to continue was not about compliance with the law. It was about fear, misinterpretation, and the power of a healthcare system conditioned to protect itself rather than respect patient autonomy.

Suppose doctors are prepared to override families when the law does not demand it. In that case, the question becomes unavoidable: Is Western medicine in its current form truly here to support women?

Negligence Before Tragedy

Adriana should not have been in this position to begin with. She had repeatedly reported severe headaches during pregnancy. Instead of proper monitoring and investigation, her concerns were dismissed. No CT scan. No overnight evaluation. The next day, she collapsed and never regained consciousness.

This fits a broader and well-documented pattern: Black women in America experience higher rates of maternal mortality and medical neglect. Their pain is often minimised or disbelieved. Adriana’s case illustrates how systemic disregard can have fatal consequences.

A Human Incubator, Not a Person

Once declared brain dead, Adriana ceased to exist as a living person in the medical definition. Yet, rather than honouring her life and respecting her family’s wishes, she was reduced to what many observers called a “human incubator.”

Machines kept her heart pumping and her lungs moving, not for her own sake but for the foetus inside her. This forced prolonging of somatic support is not new. It echoes the infamous 2013 case of Marlise Muñoz in Texas, another woman kept on life support against her family’s wishes because she was pregnant. These cases raise the same brutal question: when a woman is declared brain dead, does she stop being a patient and start being property of the state?

The Broader Implications

When hospitals behave as if women’s bodies can be controlled by legal interpretation rather than by the principle of consent, families lose their right to grieve and decide. It also sets a dangerous precedent. If Adriana’s family had no power, even though the law did not compel this treatment, what would happen when the law is even stricter in future cases?

At what point does a family truly have a choice if hospitals can threaten to expel them, dismiss their wishes, and hide behind legal ambiguity? If Adriana’s body can be used publicly in this way, then no woman in Georgia, or anywhere with similar laws, can feel secure in her autonomy.

Why This Matters

This case is not only about abortion politics. It is about bodily autonomy, racial justice, and human dignity. Adriana was a Black woman. Her death and the treatment of her body reflect how systemic neglect and reproductive control often converge most harshly on Black women. As lawmakers and activists such as Rep. Ayanna Pressley have argued, Adriana’s story is part of a wider crisis of Black maternal health and reproductive oppression.

Call to Action

Adriana Smith’s story forces us to ask hard questions. Do women have rights to their bodies even in death? Should hospitals have unchecked power to disregard families? What does it mean when the law does not require an action, yet the action is taken anyway?

The answers demand change:

• The LIFE Act and similar laws must be repealed. They strip women and families of control.
• Hospitals must be held accountable for respecting end-of-life decisions.
• Medical negligence must be addressed, especially for Black women, who face the highest risks.
• Society must affirm that women are never incubators, not in life and not in death.

Adriana Smith was a nurse, a daughter, a loved one. She deserved care when she was alive and respect when she passed. Instead, she was turned into a cautionary tale of what happens when law, medicine, and politics strip women of humanity. Her story should not be forgotten.

Support our Nonprofit to sponsor a doula for a family