Amnesty
International questioned Swedish ethical investment reality when its
pension fund invests in drugs used to put people down
Sunday, 28 April 2013
The Swedish pension fund, the AP Fund has been accused of carrying our unethical investment or placement when they invest Swedish people pension money in companies that produce drugs used in killing people.
Amnesty International is worried that Sweden, a country that condemns the death penalty is hypocritically investing its people old age pension fund in companies in the United States that produce drugs used in executions of those its described as dangerous inmates or people on death roll.
The US
remains one of the few countries in the developed world where people
are put to death if they are found guilty of crimes they believe
warrants the death penalty. They are usually killed using what is
usually described as lethal injections. These are drugs that when
injected in the body, the patent or criminal dies slowly - described as
painless death.
When the mentally retarded, Marvin Wilson was executed in the U.S. state of Texas last summer, the drug that was used was described as being poisoned syringe in the anaesthetic drug called propofol.
Propofol is a drug that is used during surgery to anesthetize and stun people. It is not a drug that is designed to kill according to reports based on expert analysis.
But Propofol is one of the ingredients used in the poison cocktail designed for executions in the U.S. and this is manufactured by the pharmaceutical company Hospira based in the USA. But the money used to keep that company going and carrying out further research in designing better lethal drugs for putting people down, some of it comes from Sweden - our pension money is invested in this company through our pension fund managed by The Sixth AP Fund which currently manages Skr20,2 billion.
This is ethically wrong and indefensible, according to the human rights organization Amnesty International. Elisabeth Löfgren, press officer of Amnesty International has reflected her organisation's frustration though a chat with Swedish television. They felt that Sweden could have led and refuse to carry out such investments given that Sweden is against the death penalty.
Swedish television report that they have contacted the drug producer, Hospira, which claimed to be against the use of its drugs in executions as it was not the intension of their drugs.
However, they said that "Like many other companies, we have limited distribution of this. Unfortunately, we can not guarantee that the drugs can not be used in executions" .
The Sixth AP Fund funds have ethical guidelines, which stress, among other things, not to invests Swedish pension money in companies that manufacture cluster bombs but when it comes to Hospira and propofol it remains ambiguous.
"Hospira have taken the steps reasonably required of them, to stop selling this product to U.S. prison hospital. The product itself is of course a standard product used in the U.S. health care sector to save lives, so we think that they have taken steps," says Christina Hillesöy, ethics and environment manager at The Sixth AP Fund.
However, Amnesty International believes that it is possible to do more as an investor.
"We know there are other investors who have reacted against other companies that also had these kinds of substances. They are needed in health care system but it also has to do with how they are delivered and distributed. Can it be controlled so as to stop it going to other companies for it to be safely used," said Elisabeth Löfgren to Swedish television.
by Scancomark.com Team
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