▶ Your Answer :There are two types of lies existing in this world: black lies and white lies. Black and white lies are normally known as lies spoken out of evil and good intention respectively. If people accept lies, are they not making other parties foolish by hiding the truth? Regardless of the intention of lies, deception can never be justified due to its nature where it ultimately yields the adverse outcomes and exists to preclude the truth from being revealed.
Definitely, in the case of people trying to deceive the other with evil intention, the deception is not justified. Even in the courts, there are penalties and punishments for the people who are found guilty of fraud. They may have deliberately deceived others to swindle them. Depending on how the fraud that they have committed adversely affected others, the level of punishment increases. In fact they have committed crime by deceiving others. For instance, back in Singapore in 2005, the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) was faced with financial scandal due to the misuse of donation funded by the former chief executive officer T.T Durai. Durai had prioritised fund-raising over patient care, as well as Durai’s abuse of authority by privileging himself and those he favoured. He outsourced the fund from the NKF's donation pool for his own benefits, such as maintaining his own car and paying off his first-class seat in the airplane. It was a really awful moment where he deceived people who donated out of their good will and he turned them down by saying "black lies" that he would efficiently use it for patients' better future and areas for improvement. In this case, such deception has adversely impacted the large number of people who are mostly patients. Therefore, it clearly shows that deception cannot be justified.
On the other hand, Some may advocate that the "white lies" should be accepted. As said in the introduction, the nature of deception remains the same and hence, deception is not justified. When we just imagine a situation where a patient is waiting for the announcement by the doctor about the diagnosis. If the result is negatively shocking, should the doctor still say the truth to the patient? If he were to deceive the patient, he is only planting the seed of false hope into the patient's heart. Many people will see it unreasonable as it will be even more unacceptable and pitiful to see a patient dying when he believes that the healing is taking place in his body. Even among friends, when one truly cares about the other, one will definitely try to correct the other although it may sound unpleasant. It is because we know that it is for their own sake. People who hear about these "white lies" may feel better temporarily, but in long term, there will be time when they will have to face the reality, and it will make them feel even more miserable with the fact that you have lied to them. Therefore, deception must not be allowed for the sake of everyone's good and is not justified.
In other words, the truth must prevail. No matter how much people try to cover it up, the truth never disappears. Then, why do we even put in effort to cover it up when we know that the result will be futile? Therefore, deception can never be justified. |