Harvard Agrees to $53M Settlement in Body Part Theft Scandal

Harvard Agrees to $53 Million Settlement in Body Part Theft Scandal - The New York Times

U.S.|Harvard Agrees to $53 Million Settlement in Body Part Theft Scandal

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/us/harvard-stolen-body-parts-settlement.html Share full article

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Harvard said Tuesday that it had agreed to pay $53 million to settle claims that body parts that had been donated for research were stolen and sold by a former manager of the morgue at the university’s medical school. The former manager, Cedric Lodge, 58, was sentenced to eight years in prison in December after pleading guilty to one count of interstate transportation of stolen goods. The university fired him in 2023. Mr. Lodge had been entrusted with handling cadavers that were part of the Harvard Medical School’s Anatomical Gift Program and were supposed to be cremated after the research on them had been completed, prosecutors said. But a sweeping federal investigation found that Mr. Lodge supplied brains, skin and other body parts to collectors in several states as part of a criminal network that involved several people, including his wife. Investigators said he drove the stolen body parts to his home in New Hampshire.

The breach went undetected from about 2018 until March 2023, tainting one of the nation’s most prestigious medical schools. Families who accused Harvard of mishandling the remains of their loved ones sued the university. A Suffolk County Superior Court judge threw out a dozen lawsuits in 2024, but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court revived them last year. It ruled that Harvard and the managing director of the Anatomical Gift Program were not protected by limited immunity under the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act.

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Harvard Agrees to $53M Settlement in Body Part Theft Scandal

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