The Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled on Monday that some relatives of deceased individuals who donated their bodies to the Harvard Medical School can sue Harvard University. These relatives accuse the university of mishandling the bodies of their loved ones and hold Harvard responsible for the former morgue manager at the school selling their relatives’ organs on the black market.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court found that the lower court judge erroneously dismissed the lawsuit holding Harvard responsible for the actions of Cedric Lodge, the former morgue manager who dissected some donated bodies, stole and sold their organs illegally. These bodies were originally donated to Harvard Medical School for research purposes.
A panel of four judges at the court unanimously agreed on this ruling. Justice Scott Kafker, speaking on behalf of the four judges, wrote in the opinion that the plaintiffs have sufficient grounds to accuse Harvard University of not acting in good faith in handling the bodies, leading to the “horrific and undignified treatment of donated bodies continuing for years.”
“Havard University has a legal obligation to ensure that donated bodies are treated with dignity and handled properly, but as Harvard itself admits, they have thoroughly failed in this regard,” wrote Kafker.
The court also reinstated a lawsuit against the Harvard University anatomical donation program manager.
Lodge pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges of interstate transportation of stolen property and is currently awaiting sentencing. Prosecutors stated that Lodge began committing these crimes in 2018, stealing heads, brains, skin, and organs from the bodies and transporting them from the morgue at Harvard Medical School in Boston to his home in Goffstown, New Hampshire, where he and his wife sold them.
In 12 lawsuits, relatives of 47 body donors accuse Harvard University of negligence, believing that the university turned a blind eye to Lodge’s misconduct for years until he was indicted in 2023.
A lower court judge in Massachusetts ruled last year that Harvard University could enjoy broad immunity as long as it sincerely abided by the state’s Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, which governs the use of human body donations for research and education.
However, in Monday’s ruling, Kafker pointed out that these lawsuits have sufficient grounds to accuse Harvard of not adhering to the law, including failing to establish mechanisms that could have prevented Lodge from dismembering donated bodies, bringing people into the morgue to purchase human organs, and removing organs from the bodies.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Jeffrey Catalano welcomed this ruling, stating that the plaintiffs believe they are entitled to more answers to understand how such a situation could have occurred on the Harvard campus and why it could have persisted for so long.