Harvard agrees to pay millions after morgue manager sold body parts

Harvard 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 (HMS) after former morgue manager Cedric Lodge pleaded guilty to stealing and selling human remains on the black market.

Lodge, 58, took parts from cadavers and sold them online in a scheme that allegedly ran from 2018 to 2021.

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.

Lodge and six other co-conspirators who had no connection to Harvard were all indicted and pleaded guilty in 2025.

Prosecutors have alleged Lodge used his position as the manager of the "Anatomical Gifts Program" at the medical school to dismember cadavers donated for medical research.

Harvard students use donated bodies to study and practice medical procedures. When the school finishes using them, the cadavers are often cremated and remains returned to their families, or buried in the university's medical cemetery, according to the indictment .

Lodge and his wife sold the body parts to buyers in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, the indictment states.