Author Archive

Pescetarianism

I’ve been reading a lot about ethics and utilitarianism lately, particularly Practical Ethics by Peter Singer. His logic and presentation of Preference Utilitarianism, particularly as it pertains to the person-hood of creatures, is compelling. Because of this, I have decided to change my own behavior and stop eating most meat excepting fish which I’ll address in a moment. Here are my main thoughts on the matter:

  • The small pleasure that I receive from eating meat requires the real pain of other sentient creatures.
  • I don’t want to support the factory farming that supports the vast majority of meat production in this country.
  • I’ve excepted fish and other seafood because I don’t think it meets the criteria of sentience and person-hood of the other most common forms of meat.
  • This isn’t the final answer. As I think more about the ethical ramifications of my life, I may revise this in other directions.

I’ll be happy to answer any questions in the comments.

Harpers Ferry

We went to Harpers Ferry a few weekends ago.

Jen and Juliana

Glasses

Juliana got her glasses today. I think she likes them. (Click for big)

First Glimpses Excitement!

Smiles

Smiles

Playtime

Playtime

2/04/10 Feeding Tube

The feeding tube is out. There is no longer anything invading her body. We should have a countdown shortly.

Monday

1/31/10

We had a good weekend with Juliana. Her surgery was a success with her hernia repaired and after a day of recovery, she is back to feeding well today. We anticipate a go-home date to be set this week.

Jen and Juliana

Break out your calculator (some of you!)

Sorry, the filter that uses a simple math problem is back up. We are getting comment spam in old posts.

1/25/2010 Allergy

The doctors say it is almost certainly an allergy now according to her blood results. Jen got to feed her tonight and she will begin her lactose-free milk tonight. Jen has to give up milk for now as well. Her hernia surgery is also scheduled for this week, so she has a few more hurdles left before she can come home.

1/24/2010 Delay

We are going to be delayed into next week. Juliana showed some blood in her stool the last few days, so they have run some tests and given her some x-rays. Some of her bowel is dilated and thickened, which shows inflammation. They have stopped her feeds as of this morning and will give it some time to rest. The leading candidate of diagnosis is that she may have an allergy to the additive they put in the breast milk to make it more calorie rich. They will keep monitoring her and will repeat the x-ray tomorrow. Tonight she will get hooked up to TPN and lipids to keep her nutrition steady. She has gained some weight since our last update: 4lbs 4.5 oz. I spent the whole day with Juliana as Jen worked on the nursery at home. Jen will head back to Baltimore in the morning.