If Ned had not tried to tell about Joffery not being the true heir in what is a crazy and unhonorable form of government anyway that no one that is honorable should support, if he had not tried to warn Cersi that he was going to tell the king, if he had not become the hand of the king in the first place, he would still be alive and raising his children. All of the above were things he did because of honor. One of the major themes of the song of ice and fire is that honor can get you killed when you are fighting people who don't play by the same rules. Remember the author is an atheist who doesn't have much use for what many of us would call honor (caring for the poor and other crazy altruistic things). Obviously that kind of personal philosophy will effect his writing.

Much like a flat tax versus a progressive tax though we have had this argument 1 x 10(9) times now. (is there a way to do superscripts here?) and we are not going to change people's opinions. It grows boring...