It is strange to me how in the last few decades ‘hero’ and ‘victim’ have gotten muddle together. I believe that a hero has to actively do something important in spite of great personal risk to himself which he recognises. As an example, a heroic teacher might run into a burning school to save a child, but a teacher who goes into a build to fetch a kid in the ordinary course of his job, without knowing that there is a hidden fire elsewhere in the building, isn’t being heroic (at least not yet). Heroism isn’t passive: the hero has to have a choice.<p>A victim is someone who experiences something bad done to him. Mrs. Lacks was a victim of medical practices we would not support today. She didn’t have a choice: indeed, it was the failure to respect her right to choose the disposition of her remains which was the injustice she suffered.