Harvard to pay $53M over body parts sold on black market
Harvard agreed to pay $53 million to settle lawsuits from families whose loved ones’ donated remains were stolen from its medical school morgue and sold. (Credit: Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Harvard University has agreed to pay $53 million to settle lawsuits brought by families who said the institution failed to protect the remains of loved ones donated to its medical school, some of which were stolen and sold on the black market.
Harvard agrees to pay $53 million over mishandled donated bodies
Big picture view:
A Massachusetts judge in Boston gave preliminary approval Tuesday to a class-action settlement stemming from the 2023 arrest of Cedric Lodge, the former manager of Harvard Medical School’s morgue.
Beyond the financial settlement, Harvard has agreed to hold a live webinar for affected families in which the medical school will formally acknowledge that Lodge’s crimes were morally reprehensible.
The school also plans to establish an annual medical-student scholarship beginning in the 2027-28 academic year in honor of all anatomical donors.
"We hope that this resolution ensures that this never happens to another family ever again," said John Morgan, whose firm Morgan & Morgan represented families in the litigation.
Harvard Medical School leaders also condemned Lodge’s actions. In a message to the university community Monday, Dean George Daley and Dean for Medical Education Bernard Chang called his conduct "despicable, abhorrent and a flagrant betrayal of our values as a medical community."
Cedric Lodge sentenced to 8 years in prison
The backstory:
Lodge, who was a a longtime Harvard employee, was sentenced to eight years in federal prison in December after pleading guilty of stealing and selling human remains. Prosecutors said he began taking body parts from donated cadavers in 2018, including organs, brains, skin, hands, faces and dissected heads.
The stolen remains were allegedly transported from Harvard’s morgue in Boston to Lodge’s home in Goffstown, New Hampshire. There, prosecutors said, Lodge and his wife sold them to buyers through a private network.
The scandal prompted dozens of families to sue Harvard, accusing the university of failing to properly supervise Lodge and allowing his misconduct to continue for years.
RELATED: 6 indicted for stealing, selling body parts from Harvard Medical School, Arkansas morgues
The families argued that Harvard had a responsibility to treat donated remains with dignity and respect and should have detected the wrongdoing before Lodge was indicted in 2023.
The lawsuits initially faced dismissal, but Massachusetts’ highest court revived them in October, finding that the families had presented sufficient claims that Harvard failed to act in good faith in its handling of donated remains.
The settlement remains subject to final court approval.
The Source: The information for this story was provided by Reuters. This story was reported from Los Angeles.