BOSTON (WHDH) - A recently released independent report urges Harvard Medical School to tighten its security procedures after the school’s morgue manager was charged with stealing and selling body parts earlier this year.
The 23-page review was written by a panel and released on Thursday. The report came just under six months after morgue manager Cedric Lodge was named in an indictment as one of several people accused in connection with what prosecutors said was a multi-year, multi-state operation to move, sell or purchase organs, skin and other parts from bodies that were donated for educational purposes.
Federal officials discussed allegations, at the time, with US Attorney for the Middle District of Pennslvenia Gerard M. Karam, saying in a statement “Some crimes defy understanding.”
Harvard officials said they appointed the three-person panel to study the university’s anatomical gifts program after learning of the indictment in this case.
Among numerous recommendations in its report, the panel urged Harvard to have two people witness the boxing and sealing of each cadaver in the university’s care before the cadaver is sent away for cremation.
The panel report was posted online.
In a community message shared alongside the report, Harvard Provost Alan Garber and Dean George Daley described Lodge’s alleged acts as “morally reprehensible and inconsistent with the standards that Harvard University, Harvard Medical School, our anatomical donors, and their loved ones expect and deserve.”
“We reaffirm our deep sorrow for the continued uncertainty and distress that families face as the criminal proceedings continue,” officials said.
Garber and Daley thanked panelists for their work. Officials continued, saying they had appointed a task force to review panel recommendations and develop a plan to implement the recommendations “in an expedient and thoughtful manner.”
“We take our responsibility for oversight of the Anatomical Gift Program seriously,” Garber and Daley said. “We owe it to our community, and especially to our anatomical donors and their loved ones, to ensure that Harvard is worthy of those who, through selfless generosity, have chosen and will in the future choose to advance medical education and research.”
While the separate criminal case related to allegedly stolen body parts continues, a class action lawsuit has also been filed on behalf of families impacted.
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