![]() This may arise when working with families from the Jehovah’s Witness (JW) community, a group that largely rejects whole blood products, including transfusion. When the rationale for refusal is religion, and especially when the treatment being refused is potentially lifesaving, the situation becomes more complex. ![]() In most circumstances, this extends to a parent’s right to refuse treatment for their minor child (2). So now, as an adult, at 34 years old, I'm learning to start dreaming again."Įven if it's too late for some of her dreams, she definitely hopes to pass them on to her children.A fundamental right of modern healthcare is that a patient can refuse medical treatment (1). "I was taught very, very young to stop dreaming, to not have dreams," McGee says, "that you'll never be a famous person or a doctor or a nurse. Still, McGee says she isn't letting that feeling stop her from retaking her life. It's a sentiment shared by most of the more than 100 ex-Jehovah's Witnesses that I heard from while reporting this story. Today, she struggles with that same feeling that Linderer talked about: the feeling of being robbed of something. She had wanted to be nurse growing up, but with no support from her parents and very little education, she didn't feel it was possible. They're doing better now financially, but it's still far from what McGee had hoped for her life. McGee and her family left the Witnesses about a year ago. She's now 34 years old, and the most she's made in a year is about $14,000. In mathematics, she never made it past the seventh grade level. "She told me, 'Well, that's not important because it doesn't have any bearing on your future, and it won't be any use in the paradise." This "paradise" refers to the heaven on earth that Witnesses believe is coming after the end of the world. "I told her how much I found history fun," McGee says. McGee says that when she got excited about a subject, her mother would often shut her down. This left both of them with significant learning disabilities. When she had trouble with a subject, McGee says she'd just pass her work off to her twin, and vice-versa. The kids were forced to fend for themselves using workbooks. She gave up on homeschooling them when McGee and her twin were in third grade. McGee's mother never finished high school herself, and the pressure of trying to teach three children was too much for her. She was by herself, very far from family, and even grocery stores and that sort of thing." "My mom, who was supposed to be our home school teacher, was not capable of doing it, emotionally mentally," McGee recalls. Her parents wanted to protect her and her siblings from worldly influences. Like Linderer, she was home-schooled from a young age. Pew research also shows that Jehovah's Witnesses are among the lowest earners of any religious group.Īmber McGee falls in that category. The lack of higher education can translate into more tangible problems for Witnesses. The Watchtower Organization discourages higher education for two basic reasons.Īmber McGee (Back) says although she didn't fulfill her dreams to go to college because she grew up as a Jehovah's Witness, she'll pass those dreams on to her children. Witness leadership declined to speak to NPR for this story, but Anthony Morris III, a member of the governing body of Jehovah's Witnesses, outlines the organization's policies clearly in a video on the organization's website. The likely reason for this trend is the religion's official warnings against college. That's well below the national average of 30.4 percent and the lowest of any faith group. Pew Research shows that only 9 percent of Witnesses get undergraduate degrees. Linderer's story is a common one for children raised as Jehovah's Witnesses. "There's been this hole ever since then." "I think I had that feeling at 17 years old or so that that was what I wanted to be, what I needed to be," Linderer says. Still, that longing to study science haunted him. He struggled to find work after moving out of his parents' home, which eventually led him to get certified as an electrician. ![]() He had no prospects of education beyond high school, so getting the diploma seemed pointless. With only a few credits left before high school graduation, Linderer dropped out. If parents and young ones are motivated to pursue divine education, the quest for higher secular education becomes less and less of an issue.
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