Docs rage against GA law forcing life support in brain-dead pregnancy case: 'This is where medicine meets monstrosity'

Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old nurse from Atlanta, has been declared brain-dead since February 2025, but her body has remained on life support, because she was 9 weeks pregnant when she died.^[]

Under Georgia’s abortion law, the state’s “heartbeat bill” recognizes fetal cardiac activity—typically detectable around 6 weeks—as a legal marker of "personhood." According to Smith’s family, that law is the reason the hospital is continuing life-sustaining measures, despite a declaration of brain death.

"This is one of the most disturbing things I think I’ve ever heard," wrote another. "I can’t imagine a fate more cruel than having my corpse forcibly kept 'alive' at the hands of the state. This is where medicine meets monstrosity."

Brain death declared, care continues

According to her family, Smith had gone to Northside Hospital complaining of severe headaches. They say she was discharged without imaging. The following morning, her boyfriend found her unresponsive. At Emory University Hospital, a CT scan revealed multiple brain clots. She was declared brain-dead soon after.

As of mid-May, the fetus has reached 21 weeks gestation. Its prognosis is unclear. The hospital has not commented publicly, citing patient privacy.

Smith’s mother, April Newkirk, says the situation has robbed the family of any ability to grieve or make decisions about her daughter’s care.

Other physicians are commenting on the case—many having firsthand experiences on cases like Smith's. “Intensivist here,” one user commented. “I had a very similar case. Not brain dead, but severe TBI. Never woke up. Was not allowed to withdraw care until after delivery regardless of what the family wanted. It was prior to the downfall of Roe. She was in a Catholic hospital, hence the refusal to withdraw. The case was horrifying. It was 15 years ago, and it still fucks with my head.”

When law overrides clinical judgment

Cases like these, once rare edge cases, may now be increasingly common in states with fetal personhood laws or abortion bans. For physicians, the legal and ethical calculus has shifted: Who is the patient? Who gets to make the call? What if you legally can’t follow your best medical judgment—or the family’s wishes?

There’s no protocol for what to do when medicine, ethics, and state law collide. But many in healthcare are realizing: it’s no longer a hypothetical. It’s happening now.