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.