This article reports the findings from empirical research focusing on international surrogacy. The document research used witness statements, parental order reports and court judgments as units of analysis in order to examine how UK commissioning couples report their experiences of international surrogacy to the courts and to map the resultant judicial response. The methodology of forensic linguistics provided an opportunity to ascribe interpretive meanings to descriptions of the personal journey of commissioning couples. In particular, the reproduced stories of the pre and post reproduction process reveal differing discourses that converge into an ideology of surrogacy as collaborative in nature. It is argued that the reported experiences of commissioning couples have the potential to affect judicial knowledge through a type of knowledge osmosis that in turn leads to transformational judicial policy in the UK that is centred on family identity.