Harvard University this week agreed to pay $53 million to resolve lawsuits alleging that a former employee stole and then sold cadavers donated to the medical school for research.
The agreement, which the courts must approve, would settle claims brought in 2023 by families after federal authorities indicted Cedric Lodge, who worked in the medical school morgue, for the illegal sale of human remains.
Instead of cremating the bodies after the research was completed, authorities say Lodge sold them to people in several states from 2018 to 2022. Lodge pleaded guilty in December and was sentenced to eight years in prison.
“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,” George Q. Daley, dean of the faculty of medicine at Harvard, and Bernard Chang, the dean for medical education at Harvard Medical School, said in a joint statement Monday. “We reaffirm our deep sorrow and empathy for the families of donors who may have been impacted.”
Harvard said a third-party settlement administrator will be appointed to notify potential class members and to distribute settlement funds.
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