Harvard University has agreed to pay $53 million to resolve lawsuits brought by the families of those whose loved ones’ body parts were donated to its medical school only to be sold on the black market by its morgue manager.
A state court judge in Boston preliminarily approved a class action settlement on Aug. 18 that would resolve the lawsuits filed against the Ivy League institution eight months after Cedric Lodge, the former manager of Harvard Medical School’s morgue, was jailed.
On Dec. 16, 2025, Lodge, 58, pleaded guilty to charges related to the interstate transportation of stolen goods and handed an eight-year prison sentence. He admitted to stealing body parts from cadavers donated to Harvard Medical School’s Anatomical Gift Program and selling them to buyers across the country.
A judge had initially dismissed the class action lawsuit against Harvard. In October 2025, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court overturned that decision, finding that the plaintiffs had sufficient claims that the institution had failed to act in good faith in handling the bodies.
Dr. George Daley, Harvard’s dean of the faculty of medicine, and Dr. Bernard Chang, the dean for medical education at Harvard Medical School, said in a recent message to the school’s community that Lodge’s actions took place without the school’s knowledge.
For more information see Chris Summers “Harvard to Pay $53 Million to Families of Donors Whose Body Parts Were Sold Off” The Epoch Times, August 19, 2026.