Harvard has agreed to pay $53 million (£39 million) to settle lawsuits from families who accused the university of mishandling the bodies of relatives donated to its medical school. The settlement, put before a Boston court on Monday, would resolve claims brought after former morgue manager Cedric Lodge pleaded guilty to stealing and selling human remains on the black market, in a case that has raised serious questions about oversight of Harvard's body-donation programme.

Lodge, 58, ran the scheme from 2018 to 2021 while managing Harvard Medical School's "Anatomical Gifts Program," dismembering donated cadavers and selling parts to buyers in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts with his wife and other co-conspirators; he was jailed for eight years in December, and his wife received a year and a day. Families sued in 2023 alleging Harvard ignored his misconduct for years, and after an initial dismissal the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court revived the cases last autumn. Harvard has called Lodge's actions "morally reprehensible" and will also fund an annual scholarship honouring donors from the 2027-2028 academic year, though it says recovery from the incident continues.