Harvard agrees to pay millions after morgue manager sold body parts
Harvard Medical School has agreed to pay $53 million to families who alleged the school mishandled the donated remains of loved ones.
Harvard has agreed to a $53 million (£39 million) payout to settle lawsuits brought by families who claimed the university mishandled the remains of their deceased loved ones, which had been donated to its medical school.
The proposed settlement, presented in a Boston court on Monday, aims to resolve the legal actions initiated against Harvard Medical School (HMS) after Cedric Lodge, a former morgue manager, admitted guilt to stealing and selling human remains on the black market.
Lodge, 58, engaged in a scheme from 2018 to 2021, during which he removed parts from cadavers and sold them online.
In a letter released on Monday, the medical school indicated that multi-million dollar settlement funds would be established for the affected families once court approval is granted.
Lodge and six other co-conspirators, none of whom were affiliated with Harvard, were all indicted and pleaded guilty in 2025.
Prosecutors alleged that Lodge exploited his position as manager of the "Anatomical Gifts Program" at the medical school to dismember cadavers that had been donated for medical research.
Harvard students utilize donated bodies for studying and practicing medical procedures. According to the indictment, once the school has finished using them, the cadavers are frequently cremated and their remains returned to families, or interred in the university's medical cemetery.
The indictment further states that Lodge and his wife sold the body parts to buyers located in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
The Department of Justice reported that Lodge was sentenced to eight years in prison in December, while his wife received a sentence of one year and a day.
In 2023, several civil lawsuits were filed against Harvard, alleging that the university overlooked Lodge's misconduct for several years leading up to his indictment.
Although a state court judge initially dismissed these cases, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reinstated the lawsuits last fall.
On Monday, both Harvard and the plaintiffs in these cases requested the court's approval for the class-action settlement agreement, valued at $53 million.
The university's letter, co-signed by George Daley, Harvard's dean of the faculty of medicine, and Bernard Chang, the dean for medical education at Harvard Medical School, stated: "Lodge's criminal acts were morally reprehensible and inconsistent with the standards that Harvard University and HMS expect for the treatment of anatomical donors and their loved ones."
Beginning in the 2027-2028 academic year, the medical school will also create an annual financial-aid scholarship for medical students "in appreciation and in honour of all of our anatomical donors," the letter noted.
It added that while Lodge's sentencing and the settlement bring the case to a close, "the process of recovering from this painful incident continues."