Issue Papers: International Access to Pharmaceuticals

Church Council Actions

Caring for Health: International Access to Pharmaceuticals
NOVEMBER 2007

Background
“God creates human beings as whole persons—each one a dynamic unity of body, mind, and spirit. Health concerns the proper functioning and well being of the whole person” (“Caring for Health: Our Shared Endeavor,” Biblical and Theological Perspectives, page 3 [1]). “We of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have an enduring commitment to work for and support health care for all people as a shared endeavor” (Introduction, page 2).

Bearing in mind these principles, one is obliged to consider the effects of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis (TB) in Africa and other developing countries. Infectious diseases threaten to reverse development gains, reducing life expectancy and cutting productivity and income. Throughout the world, 40 million people are living with HIV with 5 million new cases identified each year. Malaria affects 300 million people in more than 100 countries each year. Tuberculosis is the main cause of death from a single infectious agent among adults in developing countries.” [2]

Ecumenical work on the African continent (in which the ELCA participates) shows that 14,000 Africans are infected daily with HIV. Nine million people need antiretroviral medication to combat the disease in developing countries, yet less than 5% have access to such life saving medicines. [3] What will this do to the continent’s society, work force, economy, political stability, and hope for the future?

The ELCA has been addressing the issue through advocacy, financial assistance, and service together with: Church World Service; the Washington Office on Africa; the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance; as well as The Lutheran World Federation; and the ELCA Stand with Africa Campaign among others. In November 2002, the ELCA Church Council adopted a resolution requesting that pharmaceutical companies in which the ELCA holds corporate shares support national and international efforts to make generic antiretroviral (ARV) drugs accessible to people living with HIV and AIDS in countries in need. [4]

ELCA Social Policy
The ELCA social statement “Caring for Health: Our Shared Endeavor” (August 2003) develops the Church’s vision of health, illness, and healing. It calls for equitable access as a matter of both love and justice and for international cooperation in public health efforts, including preventing and combating infectious diseases.

Compassion, Conversion, Care: Responding as churches to the HIV/AIDS pandemic; an action plan of The Lutheran World Federation [5] (January 2002) develops the basis for the LWF communion’s need to share in the call to respond to the pandemic because the church itself has HIV/AIDS. This disease and its effects provoke a significant challenge to the whole community. In its action plan, the LWF puts forth 12 actions to counter HIV/AIDS which can serve also as a framework for advocacy at the governmental and corporate level:

Gaining knowledge and raising awareness;
Training of leadership;
Connecting of experiences;
Ensuring gender sensitivity;
Telling the truth about sexuality and sexual practice;
Promoting and making visible church reflection processes;
Articulating a “prophetic presence”;
Providing educational resources;
Ensuring financial resources;
Connecting to civil society and government;
Advocacy; and
For the healing of the world.

Corporate Response
Publicly held United States corporations face the pandemic in many ways. It makes good business sense for companies to respond to the epidemic because of the direct impact of HIV/AIDS on business resulting from increased costs, loss of productivity, and overall threats to the foundations of the economies in which they operate. The current and future workforce is placed at increasingly high risk as the epidemic disproportionately affects people during their most productive years. [6] The global corporate community must become part of the solution to the health challenges of HIV/AIDS, especially in developing countries.

Social Criteria Investment Screens
None currently apply to this paper.

Resolution Guidelines for ELCA

• We support reports about the health pandemic and economic impact on a company’s operations and their business strategy.
• We support resolutions asking for the establishment and implementation of standards for responding to the health pandemic.
• We support the development, in consultation with appropriate United Nations and related intergovernmental agencies, of ways to offer accessible drug treatments to people in developing countries.

[1] Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Caring for Health: Our Shared Endeavor. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 2003. http://www.elca.org/socialstatements/health/

[2] Millennium Development Goals. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. World Bank Group, 2003.

[3] Church World Services. Global AIDS: Facing the Crisis. Web site, 2003. http://www.churchworldservice.org/FactsHaveFaces/aidsfactsheet.htm

[4] World Health Organization. HIV/AIDS Programme. Web site, 2004. http://www.who.int/hiv/en 

[5] Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. HIV/AIDS Church Council Action 20021120, item 8. Chicago, IL: Office of the Secretary, ELCA, 2002.

[6] Lutheran World Federation. Compassion, Conversion, Care: Responding as churches to the HIV/AIDS pandemic; an action plan of The Lutheran World Federation. Geneva, Switzerland: Lutheran World Federation, 2002. http://193.73.242.125/lwf_documents/hivaids-action-plan.pdf