History Main / ConvenientTerminalIllness

* In the ''Series/{{JAG}}'' episode "Enemy Below", the Russian crew aboard the diesel submarine Al-Qaeda bought from Iran succumbs to radiation poisoning because the dirty nuke is un-shielded.

* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': A department store manager with terminal cancer starts skimming from the tills at a level just low enough to be put up to counting mistakes, planning to hand out the proceeds as holiday bonuses to employees scheduled to be laid off during an economic downturn. She gets caught by the CEO and accidentally kills him when he tries to get some SexualExtortion.

* The very first ''Franchise/SherlockHolmes'' story uses this- the murderer has Watson confirm his fatal heart condition after he's captured and dies before facing trial. Since the victims are [[spoiler:responsible for the murder of his fiancee and her father,]] and were horrible human beings in general, little is made of the case.

!!'''As a DeathTrope, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''

* In ''Film/{{Red}}'', Joe volunteers to be the distraction for the protagonists to escape from a house which is surrounded by the CIA. He mentions earlier in the film that he's 80 years old and has stage 4 Liver Cancer, so he chooses to make "the hard choice".

* Played for as much TearJerker potential as possible by ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'', where Snake's terminal illness and IncurableCoughOfDeath makes him reckless, self-destructive and occasionally outright suicidal, dead set on performing a StupidSacrifice. It's also made painful by the fact that his terminal illness means that even if he does survive all the stupid things he keeps doing to his body - which of course he knows he will - the beloved character himself is not getting out alive.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersCyberverse'', in the episode "Terminal Velocity", Bumblebee, Hot Rod, and Blurr seek to escape Velocitron which gets destroyed by the Rust Plague. Eventually, they reach the Space Bridge, where they are about to leave, but somebody needs to stay behind to keep the bridge open. Blurr volunteers, declaring that Velocitron is his home, and that he himself already fell victim to the Rust Plague. He eventually [[ReducedToDust crumbles to dust]], but still managed to prevent the Rust Plague from spreading.

* ''Series/Warehouse13'' had a variation, in which an old man uses a butcher knife that formerly belonged to "Typhoid" Mary Mallon to transfer his son's terminal leukemia to himself. He hadn't previously been terminally ill himself as such, just old, but he knew he would still only be cutting a few years off his own lifespan and considered that a small price to pay to make sure his son lived a full one.

* ''Series/{{Harrow}}'': The mother in "Pia mater" ("Gentle Mother") is dying of terminal cancer when she deliberately crashes her car; killing herself and her adult son. Harrow's investigation reveals [[spoiler:her son was a burgeoning SerialKiller when she attempted to kill him in his teens. Her bullet [[TisOnlyABulletInTheBrain lodged in his frontal lobe]], causing a drastic personality change. Years later, an accident caused the bullet to shift and his original personality started to return. The mother, dying of cancer, decided to finish the job she started years earlier by killing them both]].

* In the series finale of ''{{Series/Revenge}}'', [[spoiler: Emily is framed for murder by Victoria and forced to flee the police. After Victoria siccs her henchman on Emily's lover Jack, Emily becomes determined to end their cycle of retribution by killing Victoria once and for all. She corners Victoria in her hiding place and is about to pull the trigger, despite the presence of cameras which will incriminate her for real. However, her father David sacrifices himself by killing Victoria instead, as he is already dying from terminal lymphoma. He ends up getting compassionate release on account of this and gets to die as a free man.]]

* In ''Film/CrookedHouse'', Lady Edith learns that she is dying of cancer, and decides to kill herself by driving her car off a cliff. She takes Josephine with her because she knows that Josephine has committed two murders and, if not stopped, will commit more. If she is caught, Edith knows Josephine will spend her entire life in an institution. Edith leaves behind a note confessing to the murders, so that Josephine will go to her grave with her name unbesmirched.

* At the climax of ''Literature/CalibansWar'', James Holden boards an enemy ship infected with protomolecule to activate its SelfDestructMechanism, but finds out this mechanism has no countdown; the ship will blow up the moment it's activated. It just so happens that an officer who tagged along got infected with protomolecule along the way, which means he's doomed anyway and thus won't mind engaging self-destruction once Holden gets to a safe distance away from the ship.

* In ''Series/TwentyFour'', CTU Director George Mason gets a fatal case of radiation poisoning while searching for a nuke in Day 2. At the end of the Day, Jack flies an airplane carrying the nuke on a suicide course to the desert to prevent it from killing anyone, only for a stowaway Mason to reveal himself, convince Jack to not throw his life away and take his place at the controls while Jack parachutes to safety. It helps that while Mason was dying, he looked back on his life and [[HeelRealization realized]] how much he had made everyone close to him dislike him, which caused him to try make amends with his remaining time. Being poisoned not only gave him a reason to sacrifice himself in another's place (he says that he'd rather not suffer the end stage poisoning effects), but most likely was why he would even consider doing so.

* In the series finale of ''{{Series/Revenge}}'', [[spoiler: Emily is framed for murder by Victoria and forced to flee the police. After Victoria siccs her henchman on Emily's lover Jack, Emily becomes determined to end their cycle of retribution by killing Victoria once and for all. She corners Victoria in her hiding place and is about to pull the trigger, despite the presence of cameras which will incriminate her for real. However her father David sacrifices himself by killing Victoria instead, as he is already dying from terminal lymphoma. He ends up getting compassionate release on account of this and gets to die as a free man.]]

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins''. Near the end of the game it's revealed that only a Grey Warden can kill the Archdemon, and only at the cost of their own life. Riordan volunteers, reasoning that he has been a Grey Warden for much longer than Alistair, [[spoiler: Loghain]], or the PlayerCharacter, and only has a few months left before the Darkspawn Taint takes him anyway. The other characters seem to agree with this. However, [[spoiler: Riordan ultimately fails to kill the Archdemon, leaving you in the same SomeoneHasToDie situation you were in before.]]

* An downplayed example with old age instead of illness occurred after the Fukushima nuclear power plant meltdown. A corps of retired japanese veterans and engineers, all 60+ years old, volunteered to assist with the cleanup and repairs. The trope is downplayed, as the primary point is that an elderly person's body's cells divide slower than a young person's, making them somewhat less susceptible to radiation poisoning, but the trope still applies in that it takes five to ten years for radiation exposure to develop into cancer, and by that time a senior will be well into advanced age and only need to live with it for a decade or two, while a young person will have to live with it for fifty years or longer.

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* ''Series/{{Harrow}}'': The mother in "Pia mater" ("Gentle Mother") is dying of terminal cancer when she deliberately crashes her car; killing herself and her adult son. Harrow's investigation reveals [[spoiler:her son was a burgeoning SerialKiller when she attempted to kill him in his tens. Her bullet [[TisOnlyABulletInTheBrain lodged in his frontal lobe]], causing a drastic personality change. Years later, an accident caused the bullet to shift and his original personality started to return. The mother, dying of cancer, decided to finish the job she started years earlier by killing them both]].

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}: Escape 2 Africa'' with Melman also going to jump into a volcano. Also never sick.

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* There's an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'' with Raphael as the one who heads inside a volcano to keep a bomb from being set off in it while (falsely) believing himself to be dying. More than likely as a ShoutOut to ''Film/JoeVersusTheVolcano''; the title of the episode is "Raphael Versus The Volcano."

* Early in the ''ComicBook/{{X-Men}}'' comics, Professor Xavier died. Then he returned. It was explained via flashback that a terminally ill mutant scallywag calling himself the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Changeling]] offered to [[RedemptionEqualsDeath pose]] as Xavier so the Prof could prepare for an imminent invasion. Jean knew, so as to help the shape-shifter better pass off as the X-Men's mentor.

* Another example where readers find out after the fact: In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' (''Literature/DeathMasks''), Harry is being held in a completely inescapable position by the DangerouslyGenreSavvy Nicodemus, who offers him a choice between joining him or being killed. That's when [[ThePaladin Shiro]] barges in and [[HeroicSacrifice offers himself in Harry's place]], letting the Denarians torture him to death. A couple weeks after everything goes down, Harry gets a letter in the mail: Shiro had terminal cancer and only a few months to live.

* Played for as much TearJerker potential as possible by ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'', where Snake's terminal illness and IncurableCoughOfDeath makes him reckless, self-destructive and occasionally outright suicidal, dead set on performing a StupidSacrifice. It's also made painful by the fact that his terminal illness means that even if he does survive all the stupid things he keeps doing to his body - which of course [[GenreSavvy he knows he will]] - the beloved character himself is not getting out alive.

* There's an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'' with Raphael as the one who heads inside a volcano to keep a bomb from being set off in it while (falsely) believing himself to be dying. More than likely as a ShoutOut to ''Film/JoeVersusTheVolcano''; the title of the episode is "Raphael Versus The Volcano."

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* In the series finale of ''{{Series/Revenge}}'', [[spoiler: Emily is framed for murder by Victoria and forced to flee the police. After Victoria siccs her henchman on Emily's lover Jack, Emily becomes determined to end their cycle of retribution by killing Victoria once and for all. She corners Victoria in her hiding place and is about to pull the trigger, despite the presence of cameras which will incriminate her for real. However, her father David sacrifices himself by killing Victoria himself, reasoning that he is already dying from terminal lymphoma. He ends up getting compassionate release on account of this and gets to die as a free man.]]

* In the final season of ''{{Series/Revenge}}'', [[spoiler: Emily is framed for murder by Victoria and forced to flee the police. After Victoria siccs her henchman on Emily's lover Jack, Emily becomes determined to end their cycle of retribution by killing Victoria once and for all. She corners Victoria in her hiding place and is about to pull the trigger, despite the presence of cameras which will incriminate her for real. However, her father David sacrifices himself by killing Victoria himself, reasoning that he is already dying from terminal lymphoma. He ends up getting compassionate release on account of this and gets to die as a free man.]]