Atheist or agnostic doctors are almost twice as willing to take decisions that they think will hasten the end of a very sick patient's life as doctors who are deeply religious, according to research published in the Journal of Medical Ethics.

The study also found that the most religious doctors were significantly less likely to have discussed end of life care decisions with their patients than other doctors.

Specialty was strongly related to whether a doctor reported having taken decisions which were expected, or partly intended to, end life. Doctors in hospital specialties were almost 10 times as likely to report this as palliative care specialists.

But irrespective of specialty, doctors who described themselves as "extremely" or "very non-religious" were almost twice as likely to report having taken these kinds of decisions as those with a religious belief.

The findings were based on a postal survey of more than 8500 UK doctors, spanning a wide range of specialties, which was designed to see what influence religious belief - or lack of it - had on end of life care.

The doctors were asked about the care of their last patient who died, if relevant - including whether they had provided continuous deep sedation until death and whether they had discussed decisions judged likely to shorten life with the patient - their own religious beliefs, ethnicity, and their views on assisted dying/euthanasia.

www.jme.bmj.com