Accordingly, many now doubt that ethical theory or practical deliberation is equipped to establish precise conditions and limits of obligations of beneficence.
More recently, some commentators have argued that Hobbes's discussion of the limits of political obligation is the Achilles' heel of his theory.
Yet Harris' response to the two cases suggests a willingness to pick and choose the limits of professional obligation.
In an essay in the New York Review of Books, reacting to President Barack Obama's December, 2009, speech at West Point about Afghanistan, Stewart lamented the announcement of troop increases but praised Obama's recognition of the limits of American obligations and interests in the region as "revolutionary".
In other words, the proposition that we (whoever we are) have obligations related to the health of non-compatriots is not rejected out of hand, but the content and limits of those obligations are not specified.
This is because from the point of view of fairness – as it has been argued in the case of human rights obligations – "a sound case for transnational obligations cannot be made, intellectually or politically" [and in this case morally], without eventually defining the scope and limits of national obligations" [ 27].
Limiting the duration of obligation of researchers to return results is likely a practical necessity and should be made clear to potential participants during the informed consent process.
We discuss the scope and limits of this professional obligation to respond to incidental findings, bearing in mind that the relationship between investigators and research participants differs fundamentally from the doctor-patient relationship.
Critics continue today to argue that a principle of beneficence that requires persons, governments, and corporations to seriously disrupt their projects and plans in order to benefit the poor and underprivileged exceeds the limits of ordinary moral obligations and have no plausible grounding in moral theory.
There are, of course, limits to your obligation.
Kant here anticipates, without developing, what would later become one of the most difficult areas of the theory of beneficence: How, exactly, are we to specify the limits of beneficence as an obligation?
