Why Is Lying Always Wrong

After reading the articles about lying, I concluded that it would be difficult to determine if lying is always wrong or sometimes acceptable. The complexity of this concept, as well as the infinite possibilities of different situations, makes it almost impossible for someone to claim that lying is always wrong or leads to the same result because, in the end, we do not have the power to determine the exact consequences of our actions or what occurs in the future. Therefore, I believe that, unlike Kant, that lying is not always wrong. I also believed the Stein’s argument is not applicable because, while he provides examples to show that lying leads to no grave consequences, his theory not does properly generalize to all lies (Stein, 2016). In

One specific context where I find lying to be acceptable is when it results in protecting the lives, or emotions, of many or few individuals. My belief closely aligns with Carl Wellman, a utilitarian who believes “lying is wrong except to save a human life or to spare hurt feelings over unimportant matters” (Johannesen, Valde & Whedbee, 2017, pg 102). For instance, Anne Frank and her family lived in a secret room, known as the secret annex, to avoid the Gestapo, the secret police of Nazi Germany, during the Holocaust. Miep Gies was aware of Frank’s hidden location, and she lied to the gestapo, when they visited the home to search for any Jewish people, in order protect the Frank family because they knew that, if the police became aware of the truth, the Frank family would be sent to concentration camps where they would be killed. I find Gies’ lies to be ethical because she wanted to protect the lives of the Frank family. I believe that, under the theory of virtue ethics, Gies’ lies would also be deemed ethical because a good character, with good judgement, would understand that the Holocaust was unethical, thus they would want to prevent others from suffering or dying (Neher & Sandin, 2017). However, Kant would claim that Gies was unethical because lying, no matter the context, is always wrong (Neher & Sandin,