Harvard University To Pay Rs 507 Crore In Settlement After Morgue Manager Sold Body Parts In Black Market

Harvard University has agreed to pay a Rs 507 crore ($53 million) settlement to resolve civil lawsuits after a former morgue manager at the Harvard Medical School (HMS) admitted to stealing dissected human heads, brains, skin, hands, faces, and other organs before selling them on the black market. Cedric Lodge, 58, was sentenced to eight years in prison last December after he pleaded guilty to the accusations.

HMS Dean George Daley and Dean for Medical Education Bernard Chang said Monday's settlement would allow Harvard and the complainants to avoid 'prolonged litigation'.

“While Lodge's sentencing concludes the criminal case against him, and the class action settlement agreement, when fulfilled, would conclude the civil cases, the process of recovering from this painful incident continues,” Daley and Chang wrote.

The medical school said in a letter that multi-million-dollar settlement funds will be established for families once the court grants approval.

"If approved, two class action settlement funds totaling $53 million will be established and a third-party administrator appointed to notify potential class members and distribute funds, a process HMS said is expected to take several months," read the statement.

Affected families started filing lawsuits against Harvard in the summer of 2023, shortly after Lodge was indicted. The suits alleged negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and infliction of emotional distress.

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Lodge's Trafficking Network

Between 2018 and 2020, Lodge exploited his access to the morgue to remove body parts from cadavers that had already been used for academic purposes but had not yet been cremated, buried, or returned per the donor agreements. These remains, donated altruistically to the Harvard Anatomical Gift Programme, were taken without the knowledge or permission of Harvard, the donors, or their families.

Lodge would transport the stolen remains from the morgue in Boston to his home in Goffstown, New Hampshire. He and his wife, Denise Lodge, then sold the body parts to buyers across state lines, sometimes shipping them directly and at other times allowing the buyers to pick them up in person. The trafficking network stretched across Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania.