  Controversy continues in philosophy about how to analyze and evaluate the commitments of a principle of beneficence, including how to formulate limits that reduce required burdens on agents’ life plans and make meeting the obligations of beneficence a realistic possibility. Various writers have noted that even after many persons have donated generous portions of their income, they could still donate more while living decent lives; and, according a strong principle of beneficence demands that they should donate more. Recent ethical theory shows that establishing the theoretical and practical standards of donation and sacrifice is challenging, and perhaps an impossible ideal.