Harvard Medical School has agreed to pay a massive settlement to grieving families to resolve a class-action lawsuit linked to a former morgue manager who stole and sold body parts donated for research and education.

According to the Associated Press on August 20 (local time), George Q. Daley, dean of the faculty of medicine, and Bernard S. Chang announced in a letter to the campus community on August 18 that they had agreed to pay $53 million, approximately 73.7 billion won, to the families of body donors in connection with the class-action lawsuit.

Dean Daley and other officials condemned the theft, stating, "The theft of parts of donated bodies is despicable and abhorrent," calling it "a blatant betrayal of the medical community's values."

Harvard plans to establish two class-action settlement funds to compensate the families.

This settlement applies to families of donors who contributed bodies between January 2018 and March 2023.

The class-action lawsuit was filed by 47 relatives of body donors regarding the actions of Cedric Lodge, a former morgue manager at Harvard who sold body parts donated for research on the black market.

Cedric Lodge was indicted in 2023 on charges of transferring donated body parts to buyers in various regions, including Pennsylvania.

Last year, he was sentenced to eight years in prison for selling body parts like trinkets, and his wife also received a prison sentence of over a year for aiding him.

Six buyers who purchased the remains have also pleaded guilty and been sentenced.

Harvard Medical School either returns bodies donated for research or educational purposes to the families or cremates them after use.

It was revealed that Lodge intercepted and sold parts of the bodies before they were cremated.

Along with paying the settlement, Harvard decided to issue a statement to the families condemning Lodge's actions and outlining improvements to the anatomy donation program.

Additionally, to honor the body donors, the school decided to establish an annual scholarship for medical students starting in the 2027–2028 academic year.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)