As part of my degree in biology, I took a philosophy course in bioethics. One day in the classroom, the teacher said we had to have a debate about whether physician-assisted suicide should be allowed or not. The professor told us to split up, with those in favor of physician-assisted suicide on one half of the classroom, and those against it on the other side. As may come as no surprise, given our location in liberal Boulder, Colorado, 100% of the students (including myself) sat on the side in favor of physician-assisted suicide. Not a single student sat on the other side.

The professor looked at us somewhat exasperated. "How are we going to have a debate unless someone takes the other side," she asked, crossing her arms. So all of us sat there in silence, looking around the room to catch eye contact with someone who was on the fence, but nobody volunteered. It makes sense — nobody wants to argue against their true beliefs, especially about a serious issue like this. But after a while, the awkward silence was too much for me to bear, and I stood up and said, "Okay, I'll do it." I walked over to the other side of the classroom, just me facing the other 30 or so students.

At first I felt clumsy and unprepared. My classmates mainly came at me with the same arguments I had used to justify my own stance. But as I started to think about how to intelligently counter them, it's like a switch flipped in my mind. Maybe this conflicts with a physician's first and foremost directive of non-maleficence — do no harm. Maybe it's dangerous to put this option into the hands of individuals who aren't feeling well. Maybe it could lead to coercion from family members who want to quickly be done with caretaking, or quickly receive inheritances. And maybe there's just something wrong about the idea that a hospital, a place for saving life, could be a place that people go to end their lives.

This is a complicated issue, and I don't pretend to have the answers. But by the end of the debate I didn't consider myself such a fervent supporter of physician-assisted suicide. Did I just debate myself out of my own beliefs? And if this is possible, are there other beliefs I have that I could convince myself that I don't actually have?

Ever since then, I sometimes make the effort to seriously debate against myself. And while I may not vastly change my views, what does often happen is that I develop a more genuine understanding of where the opposing views are coming from, and it helps me put into check the feeling of self-righteousness one gets when you're convinced that you're right.