History Main / ColdEquation

** The season four finale sees Archer, Lana, Cyril and Ray trapped in a room quickly filling with water and only three sets of scuba gear to swim out and to the surface. The dying station captain they're with tells them that one of them will have to drown and die, hopefully temporarily, while the other three took the scuba suits and tried to get themselves to safety and resuscitate the volunteer. [[HeroicSuicide Archer immediately volunteers after Lana reveals she's pregnant.]]

** ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Brown_(ship) United States vs. Holmes]]'' - a US federal case in which sailors forced passengers (including women) off an overcrowded lifeboat.

* The nuclear shelter scenario is spoofed in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Bart's Comet". A comet is about to strike Springfield and so the entire towns' population tries to cram into Ned Flander's bomb shelter. They somehow manage this, but can't get the door closed. After arguing about who should be sacrificed Homer points out that the one skill future society doesn't need is the ability to sell left-handed products, so Ned gets thrown out of his own shelter. Eventually they all feel guilty about this decision, so leave the shelter to die with him. The comet ends up striking the bomb shelter and destroying it.

* Fanfic/FalloutEquestria: Of the robotic sort. Littlepip and Co stumble upon the remains of a Stable devoid of life, and perusing the computer reveals why: A stray bullet from a child practicing shooting hit their water supply, slowly leaking its contents over the course of weeks. The AI in charge noticed this, and deduced the most efficient solution to be methodically halving the population to accommodate dwindling supplies until it finally went empty, and the population dropped to zero.

See also TheNeedsOfTheMany, EmergencyCargoDump (the non-lethal version), NoPartyLikeADonnerParty, CutTheSafetyRope, TrialByFriendlyFire, WeHaveReserves and RestrictedRescueOperation. See SomeoneHasToDie for the voluntary variant of this trope.

* Another scenario meant to teach [[StockAesop to never judge a book by the cover]] uses this, and runs thusly: You are in a balloon that is rapidly losing height at a rate such that any impact will prove fatal for all aboard. The passengers are you, a geriatric old woman, a wealthy looking man in a [[SharpDressedMan suit]], and a teenager about to inject himself. One person must be thrown out, but who? Turns out the old woman fought for women's rights, the businessman earns hundreds of dollars through fraud, and the teenager's actually injecting himself with insulin--he's diabetic. (Of course, many people would just pick the wealthy-looking man immediately, giving it a rather different message: EatTheRich. Or specifically in this case. . . [[LamePunReaction yeet the rich]].)

* ''Fanfic/VowOfNudity'': In one extended flashback, a slave, a soldier, and a scientist are the sole remaining survivors of a disastrous island expedition, and eventually reach the beach with a makeshift raft that can only carry two of them. With hostile wildlife inbound, the group must choose who gets to escape and who gets left behind to die. (In the end, [[spoiler:the soldier kills the scientist, and then the slave kills the soldier.]])

-->-- '''Chaim Rumkovsky''', ''Judenrat'' Leader of the Łódź Ghetto, [[http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ghettos/rumkowski.html Speech of 4/9/1942 explaining decision to deport]] all members [[WouldHurtAChild under 10]] and [[WouldHarmASenior over 65]] to [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust Treblinka]]

* In a mass casualty incident where there are minimal resources available for rescue, this becomes an aspect of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triage triage]]. Standard triage tags for injured people have four colours: green for minor injuries that can be safely ignored by first responders, yellow for a non life-threatening injury (such as a broken arm) that can have treatment delayed until resources are available, red for someone who needs immediate attention (such as someone going into shock or having trouble breathing), and black. A black tag on someone who isn't dead yet means they're not to be given any medical treatment except pain medication until everyone else is dealt with because their injuries are almost certainly fatal with the resources available and efforts spent on them would end up unavailable to people who have a higher probability of living.

* ''Webcomic/QuentynQuinnSpaceRanger'' devotes an entire arc to tearing into the trope namer. According to the author only an over-regulated state monopoly ([[AuthorTract and not, say, a corporate lowest bidder]]) would ever use death traps like the shuttle in the original story.