Can a lie be ethical?

I don’t like the lie in that story. It pretends to be a real life story but it isn’t. It makes people want to help, it makes them hate people who hurt the girl in that story. But it isn’t really real. It’s a fiction. And the author should have made clear that it is. Even if similar cases happen in that country.

It’s extremely unfair. Not just towards the reader, but also towards the people whose lives are similar to the “lives” of the characters in that story. Because people will not believe them if they ever dare to tell their story. They will instead be reminded in the lie that they believed in.

Yet I think that lies can be ethical. Other lies.

Depending on who you lie to and about what, a lie can be excusable, justifiable or even necessary.

If you lie, but don’t cause damage to anyone, it might be excusable.

If you lie to protect someone from something that would make them sad… like your grandma is in hospital and probably dying and her favorite pet just got hit by a bus, then you don’t tell her but instead you lie and you say that you adopted the pet and will take good care of it. That would be justifiable. Why would you make the old lady sad in her last days?

Then there are situations, where it would be unethical not to lie. You absolutely need to lie, if you hide and protect a person who is persecuted for political reasons or because of racism or other unfair reasons.