Everyone learning English knows what awhite lie means, but since it is a lie, it has always been a controversialtopic. A case in point is when a patient is suffering an incurable¹ illness,should the doctor or the other people inform the patient of the truth?

每个学英语的人都知道白色谎言是什么意思，但既然这是一个谎言，它就是一个备受争议的话题。有个相关的例子就是如果有个身患不治之症的病人，医生和其他人应该告诉那个病人真相么？

People who against this insist that the patients should be informed thetrue information about their illness, so that they can make proper decisionaccording to their health. And the laws entitle people to know the truth whichconcerns themselves, so telling them a lie in fact invades their legal right.

反对这个的人坚信病人应该知道真相，这样他们就能对他们的健康问题作出适当的决定。还有法律规定人们有权知道关于他们的真实情况，所以如果告诉他们谎话，那么事实上就是在侵犯他们的合法权利。

Contrary to the above belief, some people hold that a white lie is tacceptable. They worry about that if the patient was told the true about theircondition, it will risks destroying their hope, which will make the situationeven worse, they might refuse to receive treatment or commit suicide.Therefore, we should keep the true to ourselves.

与之相反的人们认为善意谎言是可接受的。他们担心如果病人知道了他们的真实情况，就会有毁掉他们的希望的风险，这会让情况更加糟糕，他们可能会拒绝接受治疗，或者自杀。因此，我们应当守住真相。

Asfar as I’m concerned, whether people should tell a white lie or not depends onwhat kind of person the patient is. If the patient has a strong will to liveand has positive attitude, telling them the truth will be helpful to thetreatment. But if the patient is the opposite, we had better not do so. Toconclude, no matter the white lie is acceptable nor not, we should keep in mindthat the information should be conveyed in a humane² way.

就我而言，说不说善意谎言取决于对什么样的病人。如果病人有强烈的意志要活下去，有积极地态度，告诉他们真相有助于帮助他们治疗。但如果病人是消极的，我们最好就不要那么做。总之，无论善意谎言可接受与否，我们都应当谨记应当人道地传达信息。