Harvard agrees to $53 million settlement over body-part theft scandal

Harvard University has agreed to a $53 million payout to end lawsuits filed by relatives of donors whose bodies were allegedly mishandled and whose parts were trafficked by former morgue manager Cedric Lodge. Lodge, arrested in 2023 and later sentenced to eight years in federal prison, is accused of stealing heads, faces, brains, skin and hands from cadavers and selling them from his home in Goffstown, New Hampshire. Families sued Harvard, claiming the institution turned a blind eye to the theft until his indictment, a case initially dismissed but later revived by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

The settlement, preliminarily approved by a Boston state court judge on Aug 18, also requires Harvard Medical School to hold a live webinar acknowledging the wrongdoing and to create an annual scholarship for medical students in honor of anatomical donors starting in the 2027-2028 year. Harvard’s deans George Daley and Bernard Chang called Lodge’s actions “despicable” and “abhorrent,” and the families’ attorney John Morgan said the agreement aims to prevent future harm.