Harvard agrees to pay millions after morgue manager sold body parts

Harvard agrees to $53 million settlement over sale of donated body parts

Harvard University has agreed to pay $53 million (£39 million) to resolve lawsuits from families who alleged the university mishandled the bodies of loved ones donated to its medical school. The settlement, proposed in a Boston court on Monday, would end the suits filed against Harvard Medical School after former morgue manager Cedric Lodge pleaded guilty to stealing and selling human remains on the black market.

The university and the plaintiffs asked the court to approve the class-action settlement agreement, according to BBC and UPI News. The medical school said in a letter it shared on Monday that multi-million dollar settlement funds will be set up for families once the court grants approval.

The scheme and criminal case

Lodge, 58, took parts from cadavers and sold them online in a scheme that allegedly ran from 2018 to 2021, as reported by BBC. Prosecutors alleged Lodge used his position as manager of the "Anatomical Gifts Program" to dismember cadavers donated for medical research. According to the indictment, Harvard students use donated bodies to study and practice medical procedures, and when the school finishes using them, the cadavers are often cremated and remains returned to families, or buried in the university's medical cemetery.

Lodge and his wife sold body parts to buyers in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, according to the indictment. UPI News reported that an FBI investigation discovered Lodge sold brains, skin, hands, faces, dissected heads and other body parts to collectors, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Middle District of Pennsylvania. The release detailed that Lodge and his wife shipped remains from Boston to Salem, Mass., New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.

Lodge was sentenced in December to eight years in prison, according to the Department of Justice, as reported by BBC. His wife, Denise Lodge, 65, was sentenced to one year and a day in prison. UPI News reported that Lodge pleaded guilty to one charge of interstate transportation of stolen goods and was fired in June 2023 when the FBI secured his indictment.

Lodge and six other co-conspirators who had no connection to Harvard were all indicted and pleaded guilty in 2025, according to BBC. UPI News identified other indicted individuals: Joshua Taylor, Andrew Ensanian, Jeremy Pauley (sentenced to six years), Katrina Maclean (two years), Candace Chapman-Scott (15 years), Matthew Lampi (15 months), and Angelo Pereyra (18 months). The practice was undetected from about 2018 until March 2023. Harvard said it learned of the issue from the FBI, which asked the university to stay silent until the indictment was secured, as reported by UPI News.

Civil lawsuits and the settlement

In 2023, civil lawsuits were brought against Harvard alleging the university ignored Lodge's misconduct for several years until he was indicted, as reported by BBC. While the cases were initially dismissed by a state court judge, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court revived the suits last fall.

On Monday, both Harvard and the plaintiffs asked the court to approve the settlement agreement. Harvard Medical School Dean of Faculty Dr. George Q. Daley and Dean for Medical Education Dr. Bernard Chang announced the settlement in a statement, according to UPI News.

In their statement, Daley and Chang said: "These events do not reflect the reverence we hold for the altruistic individuals who selflessly donate their bodies to our Anatomical Gift Program to provide essential educational opportunities to medical and dental students, practicing surgeons and allied health professionals."

The university's letter, signed by George Daley and Bernard Chang, said: "Lodge's criminal acts were morally reprehensible and inconsistent with the standards that Harvard University and HMS expect for the treatment of anatomical donors and their loved ones."

John Morgan of Morgan & Morgan, the law firm representing the families, released a statement saying: "Both Harvard and the plaintiffs' attorneys worked diligently to come to an agreement so that these families can finally have closure and begin to heal."

Starting in the 2027-2028 academic year, the medical school will establish an annual financial-aid scholarship for medical students "in appreciation and in honour of all of our anatomical donors," according to the university's letter. The medical school will also issue a statement to the plaintiffs detailing changes to the program.

The letter adds that while Lodge's sentencing and the settlement conclude the case, "the process of recovering from this painful incident continues." In 2023, medical students wrote a letter to families saying they were "devastated" and called the events "absolutely unthinkable that such an atrocity would ever occur," as reported by UPI News.