Struggling to make ends meet as a university English major, Elizabeth could not help but notice the online classified ad, offering healthy young women the potential to earn $5,000.

She jumped at the opportunity, even after discovering the work involved donating eggs for use in fertility treatment. The 22-year-old was told the money was to reimburse her for expenses and lost time at work or school, as stipulated by criminal law that bans paying egg or sperm donors commercial fees.

As it turns out, Elizabeth said she had no expenses to speak of and took off no time from school, yet the money came like clockwork the first $1,000 after she underwent various tests, the last $4,000 when the eggs were retrieved.

I was a broke student and the $5,000 price tag was very desirable, said the Vancouver Island resident, who asked that her last name be withheld. [But] I felt like one part on the production line to eventually create this child, which this family is paying thousands of dollars to essentially produce by artificial means.

The ad was placed by one of a handful of unusual brokers that recruit surrogate mothers and egg donors for the growing ranks of people longing to be parents, but unable themselves to give birth.

A rare RCMP investigation of the Ontario agency Ms. Sager worked with Canadian Fertility Consultants have put the spotlight on the surrogate-consultant market, commercial enterprises at the heart of a process that, officially at least, is not supposed to treat the ingredients of human reproduction as commodities.

The work can mean bringing together clients and wombs-for-loan located continents apart; the demand for surrogates is so strong, agencies offer gift certificates and cash incentives to those who recruit new mothers.

Some reportedly handle as many as 50 pregnant surrogates at a time.

Brokers charge thousands for the service, yet Canadian law prohibits payment beyond reimbursing expenses for the carriers and donors themselves, part of the legal grey zone that envelops the industry.

In fact, the Assisted Human Reproduction Act also says it is also illegal to accept consideration for arranging for the services of a surrogate mother or to offer or advertise to make such an arrangement.

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Canada’s murky legal world of surrogate-consultants and human-egg buyers