Harvard Agrees To Rs 507 Crore Settlement Over Morgue Body Parts Theft
19 Aug 2026 11:40 AM IST19 Aug 2026 11:40 AM IST
Former Morgue Manager Sentenced To Eight Years For Stealing And Selling Human Remains
Harvard will pay Rs 507 crore to settle civil lawsuits linked to a former morgue manager’s theft and illegal sale of human body parts.
Harvard University has agreed to pay Rs 507 crore ($53 million) to settle civil lawsuits stemming from the theft and illegal sale of human body parts from a morgue at Harvard Medical School.
The settlement follows the conviction of Cedric Lodge, a former manager of the medical school’s morgue, who admitted to stealing dissected human heads, brains, skin, hands, faces and other human remains and selling them on the black market.
Lodge, 58, was sentenced to eight years in prison in December after pleading guilty to the charges.
Harvard Medical School Dean George Daley and Dean for Medical Education Bernard Chang said on Monday that the settlement would allow the university and the complainants to avoid prolonged litigation.
“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 said in a letter.
The medical school said multi-million-dollar settlement funds would be established for the affected families once the court grants approval.
The case has drawn widespread attention after investigators found that Lodge had removed human remains from the Harvard Medical School morgue and sold them as part of a black-market trade.
( Source : Deccan Chronicle )
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