It's a question many of us probably ask ourselves, or the ones we love: How would we prefer to die? In our sleep, perhaps, on our 100th birthday? Not young, anyway. Not in pain.

But then the broader question, in a country that tries to defy mortality, may be: what is a "good" or "timely" death?

Journalist Eleanor Clift faced these issues three years ago. As her husband was at home dying from cancer, Terri Schiavo's veru public death was in the spotlight. In a new memoir, Clift contrasts these two deaths and looks at how we die in America, and what it means.

This hour, On Point: Eleanor Clift on love, life, and death.Guest:

Eleanor Clift, contributing editor for Newsweek magazine, panelist on The McLaughlin Group, author of "Two Weeks of Life: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Politics"