It seems that fertility brokers — and clinics and the reproductive lawyers — are getting more aggressive these days. My hunch is that marriage debates are emboldening them to seek more liberal IVF laws in order to assist singles and same-sex couples in family building.

Canada, which has laws I quite like (Canada prohibits the buying and selling of eggs and sperm, and prohibits paid surrogacy arrangements), has a rather gutsy ‘fertility consultant,’ Leia Picard, planning a road trip this summer to meet would be intended parents, as well as potential surrogates and egg donors.

Picard is already under investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for 27 violations, including buying egg and sperm, paying surrogates, and accepting monies for arranging contract pregnancies. She thinks it is unfair that sellers aren’t compensated above what the “reasonable expenses” that Canadian law currently allows.

Picard is quoted as saying, “This is not about me, it’s about laws that are abusive to those trying desperately to become parents.” She apparently believes in her cause so much so that she’s willing to take on the whole of Canada.

Of course, we at CBC take issue with her complaint that the Canadian law is abusive to would-be parents. The very basis of the Canadian law rightly focuses on the harm to women and children once conception becomes a market and profit driven industry.

Author Profile

Jennifer Lahl, CBC Founder
Jennifer Lahl, CBC Founder
Jennifer Lahl, MA, BSN, RN, is founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Lahl couples her 25 years of experience as a pediatric critical care nurse, a hospital administrator, and a senior-level nursing manager with a deep passion to speak for those who have no voice. Lahl’s writings have appeared in various publications including Cambridge University Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. As a field expert, she is routinely interviewed on radio and television including ABC, CBS, PBS, and NPR. She is also called upon to speak alongside lawmakers and members of the scientific community, even being invited to speak to members of the European Parliament in Brussels to address issues of egg trafficking; she has three times addressed the United Nations during the Commission on the Status of Women on egg and womb trafficking.