It was the most heart-wrenching decision I have ever had to make," he said, "but I had to do it for me and my family.

"This is a heart-wrenching decision," she said.

"This was a heart-wrenching decision for us," he said.

But the family members who were in the throes of grieving were still grappling with the most heart-wrenching personal decisions this evening.

"I have to make the same heart-wrenching decisions as everyone else about whom to give to," said Mary Brosnahan Sullivan, the coalition's executive director.

Recently I had to make a heart-wrenching decision about Clover, who was born and raised on the farm.

It was a heart-wrenching decision, because we wanted our baby very badly and already loved him dearly.

I've met women who faced this heart-wrenching decision toward the end of a pregnancy.

Eventually, said Ms. Furse, they made what she described as the "heart-wrenching" decision to seek an abortion.

"This was a heart-wrenching decision for me because I used to adore my job."