[citation needed] In 1935 the Voluntary Euthanasia Society was formed by a group of preeminent doctors, theologians, and lawyers - including Dr Charles Killick Millard, and Lord Moynihan.

[5] During the 1970s the organisations briefly changed its name to ‘EXIT’ before reverting to the ‘Voluntary Euthanasia Society’, and in 1981 it reaffirmed its commitment to promote legislation to allow adults suffering from a severe illness to which no relief was known, to receive an immediate painless death, if that was the patient's expressed wish.

[11] In response, Dr Irwin, Angela Farmer, Nan Maitland, and Liz Nichols (all former board members of Dignity in Dying) founded the ‘Society for Old Age Rational Suicide’ to stand up and advocate on behalf of adults suffering from non-life-threatening but incurable and intolerable illnesses, who would otherwise fail be represented by a right-to-die organisation.

The organisation believes that there is a strong moral case to extend assisted dying to adults facing years of permanent and unbearable suffering, and cites changes in the law in Belgium, Canada, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Switzerland as evidence in support of its position.

[13] In March 2019, the organisation commissioned a poll from the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) which found that up to 88% of the public favoured assisted dying for either those who were incurably suffering or terminally ill, in at least some circumstances.

[20] In July 2019, they organised an open letter to mark the tenth anniversary of Debbie Purdy's landmark legal case, which was signed by thirty-four leading doctors, politicians, religious leaders, academics, and campaigners, to urge the Secretary of State for Justice to consider reviewing the law on assisted dying.

[24] In 2019, in a letter to the British Medical Journal entitled ‘Why we’re campaigning for broader criteria for assisted dying in the UK”, the best-selling author Dr Henry Marsh, women's right advocate Professor Wendy Savage, and acclaimed medical researcher Sir Iain Chalmers challenged campaigns for assisted dying which were restricted to only those with six or fewer months left to live, and called upon Parliament to respect the choices of those facing incurable and intolerable suffering such as Paul Lamb or Tony Nicklinson.

In 2020, the first talk was delivered by Dr Stefanie Green, Canada's preeminent expert on assisted dying and President of CAMAP (the Canadian Association of MAiD Assessors and Providers).