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Specialist life—Jim Thornton
European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology 108 (2003) 232–233
Editorial
Specialist life—Jim Thornton What music are you listening to in the car? Meat Loaf. What are your favourite books? The Constitution of Liberty by Friendrick Hayek, and Anarchy State and Utopia by Robert Nozick. Both are complex, clear and deep, and repay repeated reading. Who is your favourite writer? Ernest Hemingway. What book are you reading now? Jim Thornton is Professor in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Nottingham, and was previously Reader at Leeds University. He qualified in Leeds in 1977 and worked in a mission hospital in Kenya for four years in the early 1980s. He has been the lead researcher behind a number of obstetric trials, notably the UK amniotomy trial and the growth restriction intervention trial (GRIT). From 2000 to 2002 he was Editor-in-Chief of this journal, and in January 2003 he became Editor-inChief of the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (BJOG). Why did you choose obstetrics and gynaecology? In 1979 people told me I would need expertise in obstetrics and paediatrics to work in Africa. Paediatrics frightened me, so I developed an interest in obstetrics to give me an excuse to avoid looking after sick children. Who was your most influential teacher? I have had two. James Scott taught me to write clearly. He showed how almost every sentence could be improved by cutting out words. Richard Lilford was more a colleague than a teacher. We had a wonderful 7-year collaboration, but his most important influence was political. I was a socialist when I met him and he taught me that capitalism was respectable.
Alan Clarke’s Diaries: The Final Years. Who are your favourite politicians? Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan; moving the world away from collectivism is what counts. I think I would have liked Pim Fortuyn, the gay Dutch politician murdered last year. His blend of support for free markets and social liberalism was attractive. Who is your least favourite politicians? Apart from the obvious villains, Hitler, Stalin, etc. I admire most politicians. I am finding it difficult enough just getting elected. Are you a feminist? I am an individualist feminist. I have no quarrel with conservative or lesbian feminists so long as they do not force me to support their agenda. However, now that the traditional forms of collectivism are discredited, I regard socialist feminists, together with environmentalists, as the main threat to liberty. Do you support capital punishment for murder? Yes, absolutely. I think Immanuel Kant said that to fail to execute the murderer was to be complicit in the murder.
What is your favourite music?
How do you relax?
Country and Western.
Working on my website http://www.igreens.org.uk.
0301-2115/03/$ – see front matter # 2003 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0301-2115(03)00202-1
W. Kuenzel / European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology 108 (2003) 232–233
Which charity do you support? Amnesty International. What job would you choose if you lived your life again? Politician. I would still like to become one. What is your attitude to abortion? I think it is a morally neutral act. I am pro-choice. What do you think about private practice? I approve. People who can afford private care should not take up precious NHS resources.
233
How much did you earn last year? A lot. Like all other doctors who work for the NHS I am well paid for what I do. What is your least favourite word? Planning—when used by politicians and public servants. People who do not understand society’s complexity think they can improve it using the tiny amount of information that they or their committee can consider. If they do any good at all it is when they reverse the decisions of other planners. What would you change if you were a dictator? I would introduce education vouchers, and decriminalise the use of all drugs of addiction by adults.
Editorial
Specialist life—Jim Thornton What music are you listening to in the car? Meat Loaf. What are your favourite books? The Constitution of Liberty by Friendrick Hayek, and Anarchy State and Utopia by Robert Nozick. Both are complex, clear and deep, and repay repeated reading. Who is your favourite writer? Ernest Hemingway. What book are you reading now? Jim Thornton is Professor in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Nottingham, and was previously Reader at Leeds University. He qualified in Leeds in 1977 and worked in a mission hospital in Kenya for four years in the early 1980s. He has been the lead researcher behind a number of obstetric trials, notably the UK amniotomy trial and the growth restriction intervention trial (GRIT). From 2000 to 2002 he was Editor-in-Chief of this journal, and in January 2003 he became Editor-inChief of the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (BJOG). Why did you choose obstetrics and gynaecology? In 1979 people told me I would need expertise in obstetrics and paediatrics to work in Africa. Paediatrics frightened me, so I developed an interest in obstetrics to give me an excuse to avoid looking after sick children. Who was your most influential teacher? I have had two. James Scott taught me to write clearly. He showed how almost every sentence could be improved by cutting out words. Richard Lilford was more a colleague than a teacher. We had a wonderful 7-year collaboration, but his most important influence was political. I was a socialist when I met him and he taught me that capitalism was respectable.
Alan Clarke’s Diaries: The Final Years. Who are your favourite politicians? Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan; moving the world away from collectivism is what counts. I think I would have liked Pim Fortuyn, the gay Dutch politician murdered last year. His blend of support for free markets and social liberalism was attractive. Who is your least favourite politicians? Apart from the obvious villains, Hitler, Stalin, etc. I admire most politicians. I am finding it difficult enough just getting elected. Are you a feminist? I am an individualist feminist. I have no quarrel with conservative or lesbian feminists so long as they do not force me to support their agenda. However, now that the traditional forms of collectivism are discredited, I regard socialist feminists, together with environmentalists, as the main threat to liberty. Do you support capital punishment for murder? Yes, absolutely. I think Immanuel Kant said that to fail to execute the murderer was to be complicit in the murder.
What is your favourite music?
How do you relax?
Country and Western.
Working on my website http://www.igreens.org.uk.
0301-2115/03/$ – see front matter # 2003 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0301-2115(03)00202-1
W. Kuenzel / European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology 108 (2003) 232–233
Which charity do you support? Amnesty International. What job would you choose if you lived your life again? Politician. I would still like to become one. What is your attitude to abortion? I think it is a morally neutral act. I am pro-choice. What do you think about private practice? I approve. People who can afford private care should not take up precious NHS resources.
233
How much did you earn last year? A lot. Like all other doctors who work for the NHS I am well paid for what I do. What is your least favourite word? Planning—when used by politicians and public servants. People who do not understand society’s complexity think they can improve it using the tiny amount of information that they or their committee can consider. If they do any good at all it is when they reverse the decisions of other planners. What would you change if you were a dictator? I would introduce education vouchers, and decriminalise the use of all drugs of addiction by adults.