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The Conversation
Tanya D. Marsh, Professor of Law, Wake Forest University

Is it legal to sell human remains?

The handling and disposition of human bodies raises all sorts of ethical and legal questions. Jupiterimages/The Image Bank via Getty Images

Four individuals were charged with federal crimes in June 2023 related to the “unlawful transport” across state lines of human remains taken from the Harvard Medical School morgue. This indictment was part of a larger effort by the Department of Justice to shut down a national network of people trafficking in human remains.

Cedric Lodge, who had been the morgue manager until his firing in May, was accused of removing human remains that had been donated to the medical school. According to the indictment, he and his wife, Denise Lodge, shipped those remains to Katrina MacLean, the owner of a store called Kat’s Creepy Creations, and Joshua Taylor, an individual living in Pennsylvania. Taylor transferred nearly US$40,000 to the Lodges via PayPal, with memos that included “head number 7” and “braiiiiiins.”

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