Moran Justifies His Disparaging Churchill Study

Lord Moran, Winston Churchill's personal physician, said last night "We'll lose a small chunk of history" if ethical considerations stand in the way of writing medical biographies.

Speaking at the Medical School, he defended his 1965 biography of Churchill. The book has been widely attacked as being in poor taste and violating the confidential relationship of a doctor and patient.

But the former president of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons distinguished between "ordinary cases" in which "a doctor shouldn't tell" and those where a dead historical figure is involved. Moran said that one cannot follow "Winston's actions after the war without following his health."

Fear of Future Opinion

Moran emphasized Churchill's personal limitations. He had an obsession with posterity, writing his memoirs after suffering his worst stroke so that history would not blame him for the future," Moran said. "His mental processes were rather suspect," and "he had no respect for science though he led a war that was won by science," the doctor added.