Harvard to pay $53 million to settle lawsuits over morgue manager selling body parts
Harvard University has agreed to a $53 million settlement to resolve lawsuits from families whose loved ones' bodies, donated to its medical school, were mishandled. The proposed settlement, filed in a Boston court, addresses claims against Harvard Medical School after former morgue manager Cedric Lodge pleaded guilty to stealing and selling human remains on the black market. Lodge, 58, allegedly dismembered cadavers from 2018 to 2021 and sold body parts online. He was sentenced to eight years in prison in December 2025, and his wife received a sentence of one year and a day. Six other co-conspirators, not connected to Harvard, also pleaded guilty in 2025. Civil lawsuits filed in 2023 alleged Harvard ignored Lodge's misconduct for several years. While initially dismissed, these suits were revived by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court last fall. Harvard's dean of the faculty of medicine, George Daley, and the dean for medical education at Harvard Medical School, Bernard Chang, stated that Lodge's actions were "morally reprehensible." The medical school will also establish an annual financial-aid scholarship for medical students starting in the 2027-2028 academic year in honor of anatomical donors.
