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Canadians have been flocking for years to Cancun, a beach paradise lined with luxury resorts, expensive shops and gourmet restaurants.

But now some of the Canadians heading there aren’t interested in a holiday. Gay Canadians desperate to have children are visiting a little-known clinic, paying women about whom they know even less in order to bring home a baby.

Miriam Galicia is one of those women. Employed by Planet Hospital, a medical tourism company that markets to gay men, she lives in a small home with eight other Mexican surrogates. Before preparing her body to carry an embryo belonging to an HIV-positive couple from the United States, Galicia, 35, was a police officer.

“Policing is very dangerous and my children need me. I would rather do this,” the single mother said in Spanish, fingering a small pendant depicting Santa Muerte – the Saint of Death.

International surrogacy may be safer than other occupations but critics worry these women are being exploited.

“Absolutely, we are concerned about exploitation. And that was the whole point behind the legislation in Canada – not to have it,” says Dr. Mathias Gysler, president of the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society.

“When you take somebody from a lower level of society in India, for instance, and are giving them maybe $8,000 or $10,000, you’re not telling me this isn’t financial exploitation.”

Yet Gysler says he understands why so many people, both heterosexual and gay, seek these services outside Canada.

“They’re not going abroad because they want to. They’re going abroad because the services are not available here. “

In Canada, surrogacy is not illegal, but it can be difficult – financially, logistically and legally. Would-be parents cannot pay a surrogate, only reimburse expenses related to the pregnancy, but the federal government hasn’t outlined what those expenses entail.

“That leaves us in a grey zone,” says Sally Rhoads-Heinrich, founder and administrator of Surrogacy in Canada Online.

Some experts say surrogate expenses range between $18,000 and $25,000. Adding legal fees, medications, and in vitro fertilization brings the total cost to between $45,000 and $60,000.

But the threat of a $500,000 fine and/or up to 10 years in prison for paying a surrogate a fee leaves people pretty nervous about the process, Rhoads-Heinrich says. As a result, few Canadian women are willing to do it.

Experts estimate there is one surrogate available for every 20 people who need one.

California-based Planet Hospital, founded by Calgaryraised businessman Rudy Rupak, is involved in private medical programs all over the world. One specialty is “surrogaycy,” with services in Mexico and Thailand. In Mexico, Planet Hospital has partnered with Fertility Center Cancun, which handles the medical side of things.

With international surrogacy, Rupak is wading into largely uncharted and complex waters. He’s had to learn as he goes, and it hasn’t always gone well.

“It’s a never-ending battle,” Rupak, 42, says.

A quick Internet search of Rupak’s name brings up both praise for Planet Hospital and message boards stacked with scathing complaints of their surrogacy practises.

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