Georgia father gets custody of son after mother’s death; Calls for reform of ‘outdated’ laws

A Georgia father has been awarded sole legal and physical custody of his infant son after a months-long legal battle that began after the tragic death of the child’s mother. The case, which concluded this month in DeKalb County Superior Court, did just that requested calls for legislative change to address what advocates describe as a dangerous gap in state law regarding the rights of unmarried parents.

Adrian Harden was awarded final custody of his son Chance on December 2, 2025 by Judge Latisha Dear-Jackson. The ruling follows an emergency request for identification filed after Harden discovered that Georgian law, despite DNA evidence of paternity, did not grant him automatic parental rights because he was not married to the child’s mother, Adriana Smith.

“I just want to make sure he has everything he needs,” Harden said, speaking publicly for the first time since the ordeal began. “For all the men who are actually taking care of their child, that’s all we want: to make sure he gets the best and to know that I care about him.”

A medical tragedy and a legal crisis

The ordeal began in early 2025 when Smith, a 30-year-old nurse who was nine weeks pregnant, suffered a serious medical emergency. After being rushed to Emory University Hospital, doctors discovered multiple blood clots in her brain. She was declared brain dead on February 19, but remained on a ventilator for four months to allow the pregnancy to continue.

Their son, Chance, was born via C-section on June 13, 2025, weighing just 1 pound, 13 ounces. Smith died four days later.

While grieving the loss of his partner and monitoring his son’s health in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Harden faced a secondary crisis: Under Georgia law, the biological father of an illegitimate child has no legal status or right to custody until a court formally “legitimizes” the relationship.

The fight against foster care

Attorneys from Better Law Divorce Advocates, who represented Harden, noted that without immediate court intervention, the child could have been placed in the care of the Department of Family and Children’s Services (DFCS) and entered the foster care system.

“Mr. Harden had no legal rights here in Georgia,” said family attorney Melaniece Davis. “If a father has a child with a woman he is not married to, that father has no legal rights whatsoever, even in a tragic situation where the mother has died.”

Lead attorney Adriana Gonzalez filed an emergency petition on August 8, which obtained a temporary order on September 3 allowing Chance to return home with his father. The latest order issued this month gives Harden full legal and physical control over his son’s education and medical care.

A push for law change

The case has sparked a broader discussion about parental rights in Georgia. Currently, a biological father’s name on a birth certificate or a positive DNA test is insufficient to establish legal parentage if the parents are unmarried. The father must “legitimize” the child through a specific legal process in order to obtain the right to inherit or obtain custody.

Harden and his legal team are now calling for “Chance’s Law” or similar reforms that would streamline the process for biological fathers to be recognized as legal parents, especially in cases of maternal death or disability.

“I just look at him, I see his mom,” Harden said. “He’s got a lot of life and a lot of spirit. I just want to keep that going.”

As Chance continues to grow and recover from his premature birth, Harden remains focused on his son’s health while hoping his legal battle prevents other families from facing the same uncertainty.

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