Harvard recommends changes to its Anatomical Gifts Program
Harvard has released a report from a panel of three commissioned experts on how to improve the university’s Anatomical Gifts Program, which was at the center of an alleged body parts trafficking ring.
The university released the report Thursday along with a “community message” stating the review was initiated after the U.S. Attorney’s Office indictment and arrest of Cedric Lodge, a former employee of the Harvard Medical School’s morgue, in relation to the illegal sale of parts of bodies gifted to the university to help train future doctors.
“Lodge’s alleged criminal acts … are morally reprehensible and inconsistent with the standards that Harvard University, Harvard Medical School, our anatomical donors, and their loved ones expect and deserve,” read the statement put out by Harvard Provost Dr. Alan Garber and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine Dr. George Daley.
The report, they wrote, is to evaluate the Anatomical Gift Program’s policies and practices and to provide constructive feedback. The report notes upfront that it “does not include review of the factual events giving rise to, or investigation of, the alleged criminal conduct.”
The extensive recommendations included in the report include better maintenance of controlling documents in the program, including creating a program policy; changes to its operation including the creation of committees; a more robust tracking and identification system for donated cadavers; and enhancements to informational security and physical security related to the program.
To Kathryn Barnett, the lead attorney for the classaction lawsuit leveled at the university over the alleged trafficking ring, it’s too little, too late.
“These are all reasonable, appropriate basic levels of care that could have been and should have been done and every family had a right to expect to be done,” Barnett, an attorney with the national law firm Morgan & Morgan who specializes in cases like this, told the Herald as she reviewed the document.
Several lawsuits filed by various firms were consolidated in Suffolk Superior Court. A motion to dismiss filed by Harvard and the other defendants is expected to be argued in January.
“Harvard picked the people (on the panel), it was done behind closed doors. I was hopeful that maybe it would be an honest look at what went wrong and why and it would be the beginning of Harvard taking responsibility,” she said. “This entire situation is absolutely devastating for the families involved and they want some answers.”