Harvard agrees to $53m settlement over stolen body parts from donated cadavers

Boston, United States. Harvard University has agreed to pay $53 million to resolve lawsuits brought by families who alleged that bodies donated to its medical school were mishandled and their parts sold on the black market by a former morgue manager.

A state court judge in Boston on Tuesday preliminarily approved the class action settlement involving claims filed after Cedric Lodge, the former manager of Harvard Medical School’s morgue, was arrested in 2023.

Former manager sentenced

Lodge, who worked in Harvard’s morgue for nearly three decades, was sentenced by a federal judge in December to eight years in prison for stealing and selling organs and other parts from cadavers donated for medical research and education.

Prosecutors said that from 2018, Lodge stole body parts including heads, faces, brains, skin and hands. He transported them from Harvard’s morgue in Boston to his home in Goffstown, New Hampshire, where he and his wife sold them.

Families’ legal claims

Dozens of relatives of people whose bodies were donated to Harvard filed lawsuits alleging negligence by the university. They contended that Harvard turned a blind eye to Lodge’s misconduct over several years until he was indicted in 2023.

A judge initially dismissed the cases. However, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court revived them in October, finding that the plaintiffs had sufficient claims that Harvard failed to act in good faith in handling bodies subjected to “horrific and undignified treatment” over several years.

Harvard commitments

In a message to the Harvard community dated Monday, George Daley, dean of the faculty of medicine, and Bernard Chang, dean for medical education at Harvard Medical School, described Lodge’s conduct as “despicable, abhorrent, and a flagrant betrayal of our values as a medical community.”

They said the settlement includes monetary provisions and a pledge by Harvard Medical School to hold a live webinar for families confirming that Lodge’s criminal acts were morally reprehensible.

Beginning in the 2027-2028 academic year, Harvard Medical School will establish an annual scholarship for medical students in honour of all anatomical donors, the school said.

“We hope that this resolution ensures that this never happens to another family ever again,” said John Morgan, whose law firm Morgan & Morgan represented families in the litigation.