Harvard Medical School agrees to $53M settlement after morgue thefts
Harvard Medical School has agreed to pay $53 million to settle civil lawsuits related to a four-year-long body part theft conspiracy that plaintiffs argued the prestigious healthcare college was negligent in not catching wind of sooner.
In December 2025, the school’s former morgue manager, along with his wife, was sentenced to prison for their role in stealing, transporting and selling human remains on the black market.
The arrests happened as part of a 2023 effort by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to shut down an organ selling ring, with procurers and buyers alike all being met with indictments.
For his role, Cedric Lodge, manager of the morgue at Harvard Medical School, was sentenced to 8 years in prison. The DOJ said he was taking home organs from 2018 to 2020, though the thefts may have continued longer.
Lodge remained employed by Harvard until 2023, when he was charged with stealing adaver body parts—including brains, skin, hands, faces, heads and internal organs.
It was only then that his wrongdoing was formally discovered and he was fired by the university.
Both Lodge and his wife, Denise, pleaded guilty and confessed to their crimes.
Suing the caretakers
Shortly after they were arrested in 2023, families of the deceased began to file civil lawsuits, accusing Harvard of failing to adequately protect the remains of their loved ones from the ring of organ thieves. Further, the families argue they were afflicted with emotional distress as a result of Harvard breaching its fiduciary duty to safeguard medical donations.
The complaints were initially dismissed, with courts ruling that donations of the deceased are now the property of the medical institution. After appeals, however, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in October 2025 that the lawsuits must be allowed to move forward.
Harvard agreed to settle the two consolidated class-action lawsuits that followed this week. The final terms for how the funds will be disseminated to the classes of plaintiffs are still being worked out, and a final hearing on the matter will need to be scheduled to finalize a decision.
While the school itself does not admit to wrongdoing, it has formally condemned Lodge’s conduct and apologized to the families.
In an internal email cited by the Harvard Crimson, Harvard Medical School Dean George Q. Daley and Dean for Medical Education Bernard S. Chang said the settlement would allow the university to avoid a prolonged legal battle.
“While Lodge’s sentencing concludes the criminal case against him, and the class-action settlement agreement, when fulfilled, would conclude the civil cases, the process of recovering from this painful incident continues,” Daley and Chang wrote.
As for the number of victims, the lawsuits contend that between 350 and 400 bodies donated to Harvard Medical School during Lodge’s tenure may have been violated in some form.
Chad is an award-winning writer and editor with over 15 years of experience working in media. He has a decade-long professional background in healthcare, working as a writer and in public relations.