Doctoral Dissertation Research: Contracts, Intimacy Restrictions and Emotional Labor - How Law Matters When Managing Relationships

借鉴法律和情感，法律和性别，法律和社会的文献，本研究探讨如何当事人代孕协议，他们的律师和生育团体试图通过合同语言和更广泛的交换关系，围绕合同的形成，塑造和管理关系的情感方面。为了研究法律如何在构建社会互动的情感方面发挥作用，这个项目集中在几个更具体的问题上：（1）合同语言如何反映管理情感的努力;（2）代孕合同的当事人如何获得他们的协议条款，包括补偿，角色分配，以及旨在管理情感的“亲密限制”;正式合同条款与其他社会规范在管理代孕关系中的相对作用。该研究计划涉及一种多方法的实证方法，将代孕合同样本的内容分析与美国各地对这些协议的当事人，起草这些协议的律师以及协调父母和代孕母亲之间匹配的生育机构的半结构化访谈相结合。这项研究的结果可能对决策者在利用辅助生殖技术组建家庭方面产生重要影响，并对司法机构在处理有关孕产和确立父母权利的合同纠纷方面产生重要影响。

Drawing upon the literatures on law and emotions, law and gender, and law and society, this research examines how parties to surrogacy agreements, their lawyers, and fertility groups attempt to shape and manage the emotional aspects of relationships through contractual language and in the broader exchange relationships that surround contract formation. To examine how law matters in structuring the emotional aspects of social interactions, this project focuses on several more specific questions: (1) how contractual language reflects efforts to manage emotions; (2) how parties to surrogacy contracts derive the terms of their agreements, including compensation, role assignment, and "intimacy restrictions" intended to manage feelings; and (3) the relative roles of both formal contract provisions and other social norms in managing surrogacy relationships. The research plan involves a multi-method empirical approach that combines content analyses of a sample of surrogacy contracts with semi-structured interviews across the United States of parties to these agreements, attorneys who draft them, and fertility agencies that coordinate matches between parents and surrogate mothers. The results of this research could have important implications for policymakers regarding family formation using assisted reproductive technology, and for the judiciary as they address contract disputes regarding motherhood and the establishment of parental rights.