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Psychohistorian comments on Not Technically Lying - Less Wrong
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I would be interested to see what people think of some other options:
4) "I'll tell you later." [Fails to answer the question; is neither a Technical Lie nor actively misleading; may lead the patient to believe it's a painkiller or similar anyway]
5) "I'm doing everything I can to help you; please don't distract me." [True statement and a request; may lead the patient to believe it's a painkiller or similar anyway]
6) "It's a 300-osmolarity isotonic solution of chloridated alkali metal." [Technobabble; the average patient will have no clue what this means. Unless I'm misusing chemical terms found on Wikipedia, it's completely accurate. Will probably discourage further questions, especially if stated rapid-fire in a curt tone.]
These three are all basically honest, but their effects are unpredictable. 6 and especially 4 may actually make the patient significantly worse off, since the first is evasive and abrasive, and the second is meaningless and prone to misinterpretation ("chloridated alkali metal!? I had no idea it was that serious!"). 5 does no harm, but likely does little good and may be seen as evasive. Given that placebos can actually still work when people know they are recieving them, 1 may be better than all these options, as may 1+3, which seems essentially honest.