RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 3 sourcesHarvard University also said it will establish an annual scholarship for medical students in honour of its anatomical donors.
Listen Summarise Harvard University will pay US$53 million (S$67.76 million) to settle lawsuits after its morgue manager stole and sold body parts from cadavers donated for medical research. Cedric Lodge stole heads, brains, skin, and other parts from 2018, selling them from his home; he was sentenced to eight years in prison. Harvard will issue a public apology, host a webinar for families, and create an annual scholarship honouring anatomical donors starting in 2027-2028. AI generated
BOSTON – Harvard University has agreed to pay US$53 million ( S$67.76 million ) to resolve lawsuits by families alleging it mishandled the bodies of loved ones donated to its medical school and whose parts were then sold on the black market by the former manager of its morgue.
A state court judge in Boston on Aug 18 preliminarily approved a class action settlement that would resolve lawsuits filed against the institution following the arrest in 2023 of Cedric Lodge, the former manager of Harvard Medical School’s morgue.
Lodge, who had worked in Harvard’s morgue for almost three decades, was sentenced by a federal judge in December to eight years in prison for stealing and selling organs and other parts of cadavers that were donated to the school for medical research and education.
Prosecutors said that since 2018 he had been stealing parts from cadavers including heads, faces, brains, skin and hands and transporting them from Harvard’s morgue in Boston to his home in Goffstown, New Hampshire, where he and his wife sold them.
Dozens of relatives of individuals whose bodies were donated to Harvard filed lawsuits accusing the school of negligence, contending it turned a blind eye to Lodge’s years-long misconduct until he was indicted in 2023 .
A judge initially dismissed the cases, but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in October revived them, saying the plaintiffs had sufficient claims that Harvard failed to act in good faith in handling the bodies, whose “horrific and undignified treatment continued for years”.
George Daley, Harvard’s dean of the faculty of medicine, and Bernard Chang, the dean for medical education at Harvard Medical School, said in a message to the school’s community dated Aug 17 that Lodge’s conduct was “despicable, abhorrent, and a flagrant betrayal of our values as a medical community”.
They said the settlement, in addition to monetary provisions, included Harvard Medical School’s pledge to provide a statement to the families via live webinar “confirming that Lodge’s criminal acts were morally reprehensible”. Beginning in the 2027-2028 academic year, Harvard Medical School will also establish an annual scholarship for medical students in honour of all of its anatomical donors, the school said.
“We hope that this resolution ensures that this never happens to another family ever again,” John Morgan, whose law firm Morgan & Morgan represented families in the litigation, said in a statement. REUTERS
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