Harvard Medical School agrees to pay $53 million to settle with family in body theft case

(Central News Agency, Boston, 20th, comprehensive foreign news reports) Lodge, the former mortuary director of Harvard Medical School, was involved in illegally stealing and selling donor bodies and organs. The school announced that it had agreed to pay US$53 million (approximately NT$1.69 billion) to settle with the family and once again expressed its apology.

The Associated Press reported that Harvard Medical School Deans George Q. Daley and Bernard S. Chang announced the results in a letter to the community and described the behavior of former morgue director Cedric Lodge as "despicable, outrageous, and a blatant betrayal of the values ​​that a member of the medical community should uphold."

Harvard stated that upon approval by the court, it will establish two class action settlement funds totaling US$53 million. As for the relevant response, a spokesperson for Harvard Medical School today only stated that the content of the dean’s letter shall prevail and has no additional information.

The class-action lawsuit was filed by relatives or representatives of 47 donors whose remains were originally donated to Harvard for research and education purposes, but were feared to have been mishandled or even sold.

After Lodge was indicted in 2023, the school reviewed information provided by federal investigators and compared the time the remains were cremated with Lodge's employment records to determine which remains might have been affected. The settlement is for relatives or designated representatives of the donors and covers events between January 1, 2018, and March 31, 2023.

Harvard also said it could not determine exactly which donors Lodge stole.

Lodge was sentenced to eight years in prison last year for stealing and selling human remains. Authorities said Lodge was at the center of this horrifying scheme, sending body parts such as his brain, skin, hands and face to buyers in Pennsylvania and other places "as if they were just cheap trinkets."

Lodge's wife, Denise Lodge, was sentenced to more than a year in prison for assisting in the crime. According to Harvard, six other people who purchased the body from Lodge have also pleaded guilty and been sentenced.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alisan Martin said in court documents that in one case Lodge provided skins to buyers who had them tanned into leather and bound into books, which was an "extremely shocking fact."

Harvard usually returns the remains to their families or cremates them after they have completed research or teaching purposes. Lodge admitted to removing body parts before cremation. Harvard said it had neither permission nor knowledge of Lodge's actions.

Harvard Medical School expressed its respect for the altruists who donated, "We once again express our deep sorrow and empathy to the families of the donors who fear that they will be affected."

In addition to compensation, Harvard Medical School also agreed to provide the family with a statement condemning Lodge. The school has also improved its donation measures and plans to establish an annual medical student bursary to commemorate donors starting from the 2027-2028 academic year.