Brain Death and a Body Held Hostage
How Georgia law turned a dead woman into a vessel—and stripped her family of any say.
Adriana Smith was legally dead.
Her heart was beating because machines made it beat.
Her body was breathing because a ventilator forced it to.
But her brain—the part of her that made her a person—was gone.
She had suffered a catastrophic brain injury from untreated cerebral clots.
Doctors at Emory University Hospital declared her brain dead on February 19, 2025.
And yet… they didn’t let her go.
Instead, her body was kept on life support for almost four more months. Not for her.
But for the fetus inside her.
Her family was told they had no say.
Why? Because Georgia law said the fetus had rights of its own.
🧠 What Is Brain Death—And Why It Matters
Brain death is legal death.
It’s not a coma. Not a vegetative state. Not something people “wake up” from.
When a person is brain dead, they are dead.
No EEG activity. No brainstem reflexes. No capacity to breathe without a machine.
Under standard law and clinical ethics, once brain death is confirmed:
Life support can be withdrawn.
The body is released to the family.
End-of-life wishes (or those of next-of-kin) are followed.
That’s how it’s supposed to work.
But that’s not what happened in Georgia.
⚖️ What Georgia’s Law Says—and How It Was Used
In 2019, Georgia passed the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act—also known as the “heartbeat bill.” It bans most abortions after six weeks and gives embryos and fetuses legal personhood once cardiac activity is detected.