A former morgue manager at Harvard University stole and sold donated bodies on the black market for research and educational purposes.

Harvard Medical School has agreed to pay a massive settlement to bereaved families to resolve a class-action lawsuit related to this incident.

According to foreign media outlets including the Associated Press, George Daley, dean of Harvard Medical School, and Bernard Chang stated in a letter to the university community that they agreed to pay 53 million dollars, equivalent to approximately 73 billion won, to the families who donated the bodies in connection with the class-action lawsuit.

Dean Daley and other officials announced the settlement by criticizing that "the theft of parts of donated bodies is a despicable and abhorrent act" and "a blatant betrayal of the values of the medical community."

Cedric Lodge, who previously worked as a morgue manager at Harvard University, was put on trial in 2023 on charges of selling parts of bodies donated for research and other purposes through the black market to various regions across the country, including Pennsylvania.

Harvard Medical School uses bodies donated for research or educational purposes and then returns them to the families or cremates them, but it was revealed that Lodge stole parts of the bodies and sold them before cremation.

As a result, Lodge was sentenced to 8 years in prison last year, and separately, 47 families of body donors filed a class-action lawsuit against Harvard University.

Along with paying the settlement, Harvard University decided to condemn Lodge's actions and deliver a statement outlining improvements to the anatomy donation program to the bereaved families.

In addition, to honor the body donors, the university decided to establish an annual scholarship for medical students starting from the 2027–2028 academic year.

Reported by Kim Taewon | Video by Hong Jin-young | Design by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News