Nationwide — Harvard University will pay $53 million to settle a lawsuit filed by families whose loved ones donated their bodies to Harvard Medical School for research. The settlement follows the discovery that former morgue manager Cedric Lodge stole and sold body parts from donated cadavers on the black market.
A Massachusetts judge gave preliminary approval to the settlement Tuesday, covering dozens of families affected by the case. The legal action followed the 2023 arrest of Cedric Lodge, who worked at the Harvard morgue for nearly 30 years before investigators uncovered the scheme.
According to the New York Post, prosecutors said Lodge started stealing body parts as early as 2018. He allegedly removed heads, faces, brains, skin, and hands from donated cadavers, then took them to his home in New Hampshire. From there, he and his wife, Denise Lodge, sold and shipped the remains to buyers in Pennsylvania and other states.
The investigation later exposed how some of the body parts were used. In one case, Lodge sold human skin to a buyer who planned to tan it and turn it into a leather-bound book. Prosecutors also said the couple sold a man’s face, although they did not know what the buyer intended to do with it. Lodge eventually received an eight-year prison sentence, while his wife was sentenced to slightly more than a year for helping him.
The families then accused Harvard of failing to properly protect the donated remains and argued that the university should have stopped the misconduct earlier. A lower court initially dismissed their claims, but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court revived the cases in October. The court found that the families had provided enough evidence to support claims that Harvard may have acted in bad faith, leading to what it described as “horrific and undignified” treatment of the bodies.
The $53 million payment is only part of the settlement. Harvard Medical School must also hold a webinar for the affected families and acknowledge that Lodge’s actions were “morally reprehensible.” The school will establish an annual scholarship starting in the 2027-2028 academic year to honor people who donated their bodies for medical research. Harvard officials have called the conduct “despicable, abhorrent, and a flagrant betrayal of our values as a medical community.” The university said it would not comment further beyond that statement.