UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Legalization of Emotion: Risk, Gender and the Management of Feeling in Contracts for Surrogate Labor Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3rn2k33g Author Berk, Hillary Lisa Publication Date 2013 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California The Legalization of Emotion: Risk, Gender, and the Management of Feeling in Contracts for Surrogate Labor by Hillary Lisa Berk A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Jurisprudence and Social Policy in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Lauren Edelman, Chair Professor Calvin Morrill Professor Kristin Luker Professor Kim Voss Spring 2013 Abstract The Legalization of Emotion: Risk, Gender, and the Management of Feeling in Contracts for Surrogate Labor by Hillary Lisa Berk Doctor of Philosophy in Jurisprudence and Social Policy University of California, Berkeley Professor Lauren Edelman, Chair This dissertation combines in-depth, semi-structured interviews and content analyses of surrogacy contracts to address the interface of law and emotions. It unpacks the legal interests, risks, and social relationships that are situated at the nexus between a surrogate’s womb and the hopes of intended parents negotiated within an unsettled and ambiguous reproductive field. Whereas economic and liberal legal models depict contracting as asocial, non-emotive, and gender neutral, I argue that contracts – especially in the context of surrogacy – are social artifacts both shaped by and designed to manage emotions, as well as gender, work, and parenting roles. Specifically, I examine how emotions, identity, and relationships are managed in surrogacy, and the rationale for doing so. I explain why and how attorneys who specialize in surrogacy, with the help of matching agencies and mental health counselors, anticipate and tactically channel a variety of emotions in surrogates and intended parents before, during and after the baby is born. I establish that “feeling rules” formalized in the contract, along with informal strategies like triage, are intended to minimize attachment, conflicts, and risk amidst a highly unsettled reproductive field, made up of lawyers, organizations, and mental health professionals. These rules and strategies are diffused and institutionalized in the reproductive field, and more broadly in society. I demonstrate how contracting practices make surrogacy a site where beliefs about gender, motherhood, and work constitute, and are constituted by, the content and meaning of law. While this dissertation explores the case of surrogacy, my institutional theory on the legalization of emotions could be transposable to other exchange relationships. 1 Dedication To Helen, Barbara, and Debbie, three quintessential models of motherhood, and all surrogates who mother for others... i TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Managing the ‘Nexus’ in an Unsettled Legal Terrain ...........................................1 Chapter 2: An Institutional Theory of Law and Emotions in Contracting .............................7 2-A. Review of the Literature and Existing Theories ....................................................................8 2-A1. Rethinking Exchange Relations ..................................................................................8 2-A2. Emotions, Disputing, and Institutionalization ..........................................................10 2-A3. Channeling Law and Emotions .................................................................................12 2-A4. The Legalization of Emotional Labor and Feeling Rules .........................................13 2-A5. Reconstituting Norms for Women, Work and Family .............................................14 2-B. Generating a Theory of Law and Emotions in Contracting .................................................16 Chapter 3: Research Design and Methods ...............................................................................20 3-A. Interviews ............................................................................................................................20 3-A1. Sampling and Site Selection .....................................................................................22 3-A2. Interview and Archival Data Analysis ......................................................................27 3-B. Content Analysis of Contractual Language .........................................................................28 3-B1. Sampling of Contracts ..............................................................................................30 3-B2. Content Coding .........................................................................................................32 Chapter 4: Anticipatory Emotion Management and the Matching Process .........................37 4-A. Forming a Family by Finding a Match ................................................................................38 4-A1. Contacting the Matching Agency and Operational Models .....................................39 4-A2. Matching Program Entry and Screening Criteria .....................................................43 4-A2. (a) Parent Screening .......................................................................................43 4-A2. (b) Surrogate Screening .................................................................................46 4-B. Anticipatory Emotion Management: Screening for Emotional Fitness ...............................47 4-B1. Psychological Screening ...........................................................................................47 4-B2. Support System .........................................................................................................51 4-B3. Parenting Children at Home .....................................................................................53 4-B4. Values .......................................................................................................................55 4-B5. Motivation .................................................................................................................60 4-B6. Degree of Contact Desired ........................................................................................64 4-C. Conclusion ...........................................................................................................................69 Chapter 5: Content Analysis of ‘Feeling Rules’ in Surrogacy Contracts ..............................70 5-A. Architecture of a Surrogacy Contract ..................................................................................72 5-B. Lifestyle Rules .....................................................................................................................77 5-C. Contact Rules and Intimacy Restrictions .............................................................................81 5-C1. Sexual Contact ..........................................................................................................81 5-C2. Communication and Contact with the Intended Parents ...........................................83 5-C3. Breast Milk Provisions ..............................................................................................85 5-C4. Rules for Contact at Birth of the Child .....................................................................87 5-C5. Continuing Contact with the Parents and Child ........................................................88 ii 5-D. Naming and Labeling Practices ...........................................................................................90 5-E. Compensation Provisions .....................................................................................................92 5-F. Psychological Counseling and Intervention .........................................................................95 5-G. Bodily Autonomy and Risk Provisions ...............................................................................97 Chapter 6: Contracts-in-Action – Managing Emotions, Managing Risk ............................102 6-A. Informal Management of Intention and Expectations .......................................................103 6-B. Managing Emotions: Formal Contract Provisions and Informal Practices .......................107 6-B1. Lifestyle Rules and Restrictions .............................................................................108 6-B2. Contact Rules and Intimacy Restrictions ................................................................113 6-B2. (a) Sexual Contact ........................................................................................113 6-B2. (b) Breastfeeding Provisions ........................................................................115 6-B2. (c) Rules on Viewing, Handling or Continuing Contact .............................119 6-B3. Naming and Labeling Practices ..............................................................................124 6-B4. Compensation Provisions .......................................................................................129 6-B5. Psychological Screening, Counseling Provisions and Triage .................................134 6-C. Summary of Findings .........................................................................................................138 Chapter 7: Conclusion – The Legalization of Human Feeling .............................................141