 Biomedicine has been used as one prong of colonial power dynamics between Western institutions and non-Western peoples (including indigenous peoples) (see Millum &amp; Emanuel 2012). Colonial governments and cultural imperialism have long undermined or directly attacked local/indigenous medical frameworks and institutions. And since biomedical education and practice are based on technologies and education from the West, low- and middle-income countries are left dependent on wealthy Western countries (Nunn 2009). As a result, local would-be biomedical practitioners often travel to the West for biomedical education and then have little incentive to return to their home countries to practice techniques for which they will have relatively few biomedical tools, lower pay, etc. This raises further ethical questions related to which entities have which individual/collective responsibilities to address this so-called ‘brain drain’ trend (Yuksekdag forthcoming). Meanwhile, non-governmental organizations such as the Red Cross offer medical aid, but generally in the form of sending temporary trained personnel from the West, rather than building local capacity for medical training and practice. And well-meaning Western biomedical students travel to the same low- and middle-income countries, with limited biomedical skills and little or no knowledge of the populations or health needs, seeking to help populations assumed to be incapable of helping themselves (Pinto &amp; Upshur 2009).