  In rejecting principles of obligatory beneficence, Gert draws the line of obligations by presenting a sharp contrast between beneficence and nonmaleficence. That is, he embraces rules of obligation that prohibit causing harm to other persons, even though he rejects as obligatory all principles or rules that require helping other persons, which includes acting to prevent harm to them. Accordingly, he accepts moral rules such as “Don’t kill,” “Don’t cause pain or suffering to others,” “Don’t incapacitate others,” “Don’t deprive others of the goods of life,” and the like. His theory therefore makes nonmaleficence central to his theory of moral obligation while denying that beneficence has a place in the theory of obligation.