Reply #57: Calling it mercy is rationalizing a lie.

[Orrex]

Sid's point, which I now understand that you weren't able to see, is that conscious acceptance of a treatment based on an exaggeration of that treatment's effectiveness is, by definition, being okay with dishonesty.

Survival is the goal

Not true in the case you cited. Comfort was the goal. That's very different, unless the lack of a few hours sleep would have been fatal.

And if survival is the goal, what is the limit of a justifiable lie?

how can you judge and complain? On what basis? Threat to the species is the only boundary you can HONESTLY claim.

I'm not judging you; I'm judging the act, which was indisputably an act of deception, a lie.
Did you, after the fact, tell your grandmother that you'd given her candy instead of medication? Or did you maintain the deception afterward? If the former, then how did your grandmother react? If the latter, then why did you maintain it?

I'm complaining because your action after the fact demonstrates a willingness (understandable, perhaps) to make truth subordinate to comfort. That way madness lies.

Incidentally, I'm happy to admit that I'd probably have done the same thing in your shoes. Afterward, however, I wouldn't deny that I'd been dishonest about it.