I don't remember the name of it but I once read the first book in a Christian teen's book series about colonizing Mars. The plot of the very first book is that the machines that supply the colony with oxygen are failing for unknown reasons and some people calculate that a small number of people must be sacrificed in order for the whole colony to survive until help arrives from Earth. The president of the colony calls for volunteers to sacrifice themselves by leaving the colony in a vehicle to suffocate. The protagonist ends up volunteering. But they are surprised when they wake up alive. It turns out that the president had lied about how many people could be saved. There actually was only enough oxygen to save a small number of people while sacrificing the rest of the colony. So the people who volunteered to sacrifice themselves would be the only survivors as they had taken all the oxygen supplies with them. But luckily the protagonist saves the day by and figuring out the cause of the failing oxygen machines just in time and manages to send a message back to the colony before they suffocate.
I remember hearing that in one of the Dark Sun modules, you are slaves who have successfully revolted. However, you are also in the middle of the desert and don't have enough resources to get to civilization. Can someone confirm, because I think this makes a good non-sci fi example.
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I think another good example is in Willa Cather's book, My Antonia, wherein Peter and Pavel were driving a coach with a newly married couple in it , and they were being chased by wolves. In order to lighten the coach so they could get away, they threw the couple to the wolves. I don't know if it counts since it's not sci-fi, though.
Edited by infinity5
Is this specifically about situations similar to the one in the trope namer, where it's about having enough resources for n-x people to survive? Or is it (as the laconic version suggests, but the full description doesn't say anything about) anything where someone's going to be sacrificed (without volunteering, so it doesn't fall under Someone Has to Die instead) because everyone's going to die if they aren't?
And if the former, is there a more general trope the latter would fit under?
I'm specifically thinking of A Song of Ice and Fire here, and Stannis' attempt to burn Edric Storm.
Sorcerer in training
I can't help noticing that on some of the 'lack of air' ones, there isn't necessarily a way to quickly get rid of or seal up/off the body. Apparently oxygen consumption due to decomposition isn't factored in all that frequently.
Edited by 97.113.196.119 Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett
I remember hearing a weird variant of this where you are in a vehicle that is about to drive off of a cliff and kill you and the only way to save yourself is cause your vehicle to crash into another and send them off the cliff instead and you have two options of who to crash into. I do not remember who the two choices were. I do not know if this was a serious discussion or a silly one or if it was a dark joke I misunderstood. I was very young when I heard this and I misunderstood a lot of things that happened when I was that age. I believe I heard this from a family member so I don't know if they got it from somewhere.