Lying with Integrety - Is it OK to lie to someone to protect them?

"I wish it wasn't my nose that grew each time I lie"

I was always taught that lying was a bad thing.

Not just 'bad' but BAD. If I lied I'd get in so much trouble. Thing is, i can't lie anyway, for some reason I always smile and give it all up.

However, as you get older your parents teach you ( which completely messes up your perception of right and wrong ) that sometimes it is OK to lie in order to protect someone - essentially a white lie.

However if lying is wrong, then so is lying to protect people.

In my opinion I'd rather be told something to my face than have someone keep something from me to protect my feelings, because nine times out of ten when I do find out the truth, on top of the damage caused by the subject of the lie I'd also have the damage caused by someone I considered a friend not respecting me enough to tell the truth.

Lying is bad, whatever your intentions, it's far to easy for someone to lie to you maliciously and then claim they did it to protect you.

Source:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/lying/lying_1.shtml