Is it moral/appropriate to tell a lie to save a person's life?

[John Dibble]

Lying to save an innocent person's life has been found moral by most reasonable people throughout history. Take for instance those who hid the Jewish in their homes from the Nazis - it's not like they would say "Why yes, I am hiding some Jews behind that bookcase, would you care to arrest them?" when asked about it, and most would consider them paragons of virtue for taking such a risk.

Though, to play devil's advocate, I doubt the Nazi's would think it was very moral.

[John Dibble]

Lying to save an innocent person's life has been found moral by most reasonable people throughout history. Take for instance those who hid the Jewish in their homes from the Nazis - it's not like they would say "Why yes, I am hiding some Jews behind that bookcase, would you care to arrest them?" when asked about it, and most would consider them paragons of virtue for taking such a risk.

Yes, that's the example we all use but I don't think that makes lying moral. In that case, it's amoral but certainly the appropriate thing to do.

Nobody ever asked if lying is moral, the question was whether lying to save someone was moral. Deceit is just one of the various tools we have available to us. You are correct in asserting that the tool itself has no moral value. It's how it is used that matters. The action of lying in order to save an innocent is viewed as a "moral action" because it has an intended "moral result".

[John Dibble]

Lying to save an innocent person's life has been found moral by most reasonable people throughout history. Take for instance those who hid the Jewish in their homes from the Nazis - it's not like they would say "Why yes, I am hiding some Jews behind that bookcase, would you care to arrest them?" when asked about it, and most would consider them paragons of virtue for taking such a risk.

Yes, that's the example we all use but I don't think that makes lying moral. In that case, it's amoral but certainly the appropriate thing to do.

Nobody ever asked if lying is moral, the question was whether lying to save someone was moral. Deceit is just one of the various tools we have available to us. You are correct in asserting that the tool itself has no moral value. It's how it is used that matters. The action of lying in order to save an innocent is viewed as a "moral action" because it has an intended "moral result".

The question centers around whether or not the act of lying becomes moral because of this situation. I don't believe the act of lying is ever "moral." I believe it is most certainly appropriate/justified.

Then I ask you how can any action be considered moral? Is there any single action that can only be used for moral intentions?

[John Dibble]

I'm simply saying that just because something can be used for the greater good doesn't make that act good.

Well, when you speak of something being done for the "greater good" you can generally assume that there's some negatives in there. That makes the action somewhere in the grey area. In that sense I agree with you.

On the other hand with a simple lie to save someone's life, I would think that most imagine a scenario where nobody is harmed by the lie, in which case there's no grey to think about.