ATLANTA — In a rare and emotionally charged case, a Georgia man has been awarded sole legal and physical custody of his infant son — known in court filings as Baby Chance — after a judge granted final custody rights in what legal experts are calling an unprecedented legitimation case.
The case stems from a deeply tragic sequence of events that began in early 2025, when 30-year-old Adriana Smith, who was nine weeks pregnant with her boyfriend Adrian Harden’s child, suffered a sudden and severe medical emergency. Smith was rushed to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, where doctors discovered multiple blood clots in her brain and eventually declared her brain dead on Feb. 19. Medical teams placed her on life support to sustain the pregnancy.
Despite the dire circumstances, doctors were able to prolong the pregnancy for nearly four months. On June 13, Baby Chance was delivered via emergency cesarean section at just under 2 pounds. Smith was taken off life support four days later and died, leaving Harden to face both grief and uncertainty about his son’s future.
Under Georgia law, unmarried fathers do not automatically gain legal parental rights — even with confirmed paternity — without a formal legitimation process, which establishes a legal father-child relationship and allows petitioners to seek custody. Harden learned that without such an order, he could potentially be barred from taking his newborn home or, in the worst case, see his child placed in state care after hospital discharge.
Attorneys for Harden filed an emergency petition for legitimation and custody in DeKalb County Superior Court in August. That effort secured a temporary order granting him custody in September, ensuring the infant could be with his father once released from the hospital. On Dec. 2, Judge Latisha Dear-Jackson issued a final order awarding Harden sole legal and physical custody of Baby Chance.
The case has drawn attention not only for its heartbreaking circumstances but also for the legal hurdles it highlighted. Family law advocates say the matter underscores long-standing gaps in Georgia’s child custody statutes that can leave unmarried parents — particularly fathers — with uncertain rights to their biological children unless they navigate complex court procedures.
