JOHN COSTELLO / Staff Photographer
Charles Bridges, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Pennsylvania Hospital, says, "You have to get out of the idea that there's a threshold age where we think about this surgery differently."
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For America's aged, surgery at any price?
"In 1987, people said: 'We'll see what you say when you're old.' Well, I'll be 79 . . . and I'm saying the same thing," Callahan laughed.
A philosopher by training, Callahan holds the view that, by age 80, a person has had the chance for an education, a family, a career, travel - a "full life."
"Death after that is sad, but it's not an inherent tragedy. If I die now, no one will say: 'Oh, my God, the lost possibilities! He only wrote 14 books.' "
Even so, Callahan hesitated when asked what he would do if he developed, say, cancer and needed major surgery.
"I find it hard to answer that question," said the former smoker, who has mild emphysema. "I hope I wouldn't push it too far. I'd prefer a situation where surgery is not available anyway."
Contact staff writer Marie McCullough at 215-854-2720 or mmccullough@phillynews.com.
