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.

He was sentenced in December to eight years in prison, according to the Department of Justice. His wife was sentenced to one year and a day.

In 2023, a number of civil lawsuits were brought against Harvard alleging the university ignored Lodge's misconduct for several years until he was indicted.

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 in those cases asked the court to approve the class-action settlement agreement valued at $53 million.

The university's letter - signed by George Daley, ⁠Harvard's dean of the faculty of medicine, and Bernard Chang, the dean for medical education at Harvard Medical School - 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".

Starting in the 2027-2028 academic year, the medical school will also establish an annual financial-aid scholarship for medical students "in appreciation and in honour of all of our anatomical donors," the letter states.

It adds that while Lodge's sentencing and the settlement conclude the case, "the process of recovering from this painful incident continues".

Source: BBC

– Agencies