Respect for Autonomy

Most people believe that lying is wrong. But there is by no means a consensus amongst such people about why lying is wrong, or about how one should go about promoting honesty. On the one hand are those who believe simply that, other things equal, it is better not to lie, because lying tends to produce harmful consequences. They don’t think lying is in itself wrong. As things are rarely equal, lying is, on this view, often justifiable; for instance, in a medical context, to protect a patient from receiving information which might be painful. On the other hand, many people believe that lying is wrong in itself — independently of any other harms it may produce.