Notes & links: 'The Occasional Human Sacrifice'

There was much to unpack and explore from our April book, The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No by bioethicist and whistleblower Carl Elliott.

A few links to resources that arose for exploration:

• Related books from our past discussions include We Are Bellingcat by Eliot Higgins and Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World by Elinor Cleghorn. 

• "Fatal experiments: a maverick surgeon strikes back," a Guardian article about the Swedish documentary that exposed Dr. Paolo Maccharini.

• Willowbrook: The Last Great Disgrace, the documentary from 1972.

• Erin Brockovich (2000 film)

• The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009 documentary)

• The 2024 obituary of Peter Buxtun, of San Francisco, who exposed the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. 

• Also, Clint Smith, whose book How the Word Is Passed we read last year, appeared on KQED's Forum this week. Listen here.

Our May Book

We will discuss James by Percival Everett. (This novel won the 2024 National Book Award.)

Sunday, May 25, 2025

11:15 a.m. to approx. 12:30 p.m.

Books Inc. Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness, San Francisco

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