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* [[spoiler:[[SoylentGreen SOYLENT GREEN]] [[ItWasHisSled IS PEOPLE!!]]]]

* ''X-men'' the first movie has the x-gening machine powered by Magneto or Magneto-powered Rogue, I always wondered... Why Rogue? Couldn't Magnus build a giant magnet to power it?

***** Which is actually pretty smart thinking since valuable objects would be kept intact by anyone that finds them. In fact, the objects he used are so valuable anyone who finds them would likely sell them in a high-profile auction. Afterward Voldemort could hunt down and kill whoever bought them and then hide them again. His plan would have worked perfectly if Harry wasn't able to read his mind and lift the locations of the objects from it.

* Embryonic stem cell research, almost literally. Despite proponents' talk of how much promise it shows, no actual effective treatment for any disease has ever been developed from embryonic stem cells. Considering this, and the fact that plenty of effective treatments from ''adult'' stem cells do exist and have for decades, (and without the risks of rejection that comes from using someone else's DNA,) it makes you wonder why researchers [[ForScience continue pushing for funding]] on something that's never been shown to be anything other than futile at best, or harmful at worst.
** "Nowadays, everyone wants a bailout. Embryo-destructive scientists are only the latest group to claim they're too big to fail, when in fact ''they've never succeeded."'' -- Matt Bowman
** This does not fit this trope, as opponents of embryonic stem cell research always fail to understand (or maybe just to mention) that there is no "really ghastly price" you have to pay since ''the embryos were being discarded anyway''. All embryonic stem cell research uses embryos that were created for in vitro fertility treatments. If not used for stem cell research, they are destroyed. So, ''since they are being destroyed anyway'', wouldn't it be the opposite of a "really ghastly price" to use them to help people?

* Pictured above: ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha {{StrikerS}}'' has the Saint's Cradle, a massively overpowered CoolStarship that can only power-up when commanded by a direct descendant of the Saint King's of Ancient Belka. The problem? The last Saint King died over a hundred years ago without any heirs, so their bloodline is effectively extinct. So what is an MadScientist to do? Why, [[spoiler:clone the last Kaiser, infuse her (despite said clone being ''a six years old little girl'') with GreenRocks, torture her until she is under his complete MindControl, then make her activate the Cradle, despite how utterly ''apinfull'' the process is for her. The problem with ''that''? Little Vivio just had to go and get herself adopted not by one, but by two {{Action Mom}}s]].

* Pictured above: ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha {{StrikerS}}'' has the Saint's Cradle, a massively overpowered CoolStarship that can only power-up when commanded by a direct descendant of the Saint King's of Ancient Belka. The problem? The last Saint King died over a hundred years ago without any heirs, so their bloodline is effectively extinct. So what is an MadScientist to do? Why, [[spoiler:clone the last Kaiser, infuse the ''six-year-old child'' with GreenRocks, torture her until she is under his complete MindControl, then make her activate the Cradle. The problem with ''that''? Little Vivio just had to go and get herself adopted not by one, but by two {{Action Mom}}s]].

** As shown when Tsuna rips the Gola Mosca attacking Hibari and his friends apart and discovers a person inside of it. The situation is made worse for Tsuna since it was his grandfather, the 9th head of the Vongola family inside of it.

** And they're piloted by forsaken children.
* In ''{{Naruto}}'', members of the Uchiha clan can only get the Mangekyo Sharingan by killing their best friend. The Anime has not revealed how Kakashi got his (which looks quite different), but the Manga reveals that [[spoiler:his eye used to belong to his best friend, whose death he feels responsible for even if he didn't do the deed.]]

** Fellow Akatsuki member Sasori [[spoiler:makes puppets out of people.]]

** How are the Jinchuriki not on this list? Almost all of them ARE forsaken children, sacrificed to create a [[FantasticNuke military weapon for their village.]] Naruto's sealing is more justified, as it was a last resort with annihilation of the village as the other option (which of course would've killed Naruto as well).

** In the original Japanese version, [[spoiler:they were created by literally mixing the flesh, blood, and bones of the victims into the gold used to cast them, making it even more of a Soylent Green.]]

* ''RomeoXJuliet'' eventually reveals that Neo Verona's prosperity (and continued existence) is contingent on [[spoiler: the willing sacrifice of the daughters of House Capulet, who become integrated with [[WorldTree Escalus]] and bound to it for eternity. This does not sit well with Romeo, who fights first Juliet and then Ophelia to save her from her cruel fate; in the end, however, Romeo dies after defeating Ophelia, destroying Escalus in the process, and Juliet saves Neo Verona by becoming a new Escalus, with the implication that the cycle of sacrifice that sustained Neo Verona in the past has finally been broken]].

* A quite literal (and disturbing, especially for a kids' show) application of this trope occurs in {{Digimon Tamers}}. The {{big bad}} D-Reaper is a mass of otherworldly energy which intends to slowly consume the entire world. Held captive at its core, though, is [[TheWoobie Juri Katou]], a very young girl [[HeroicBSOOD who is in deep despair]] over [[DeadSidekick the death of her best friend and Digimon partner]], which was the final and hardest blow to her [[BreakThecutie after several years]] of [[StepfordSmiler quiet and hidden suffer]] started by her mom's demise. The D-Reaper is literally powered by her misery.

* In ''MetroidPrime 3: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Corruption]]'', you awaken after an [[CurbStompBattle unfortunate encounter]] with [[EvilTwin Dark Samus]] to find that your weapons, your suit and you ''body'' now run on [[ToxicPhlebotinum Phazon]].

* Pictured above: ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' StrikerS has the Saint's Cradle, a massively overpowered CoolStarship that can only power-up when commanded by a direct descendant of the Saint King's of Ancient Belka. The problem? The last Saint King died over a hundred years ago without any heirs, so their bloodline is effectively extinct. So what is an EvilScientist to do? Why, [[spoiler:clone the last Kaiser, infuse the ''six-year-old child'' with GreenRocks, torture her until she is under his complete MindControl, then make her activate the Cradle. The problem with ''that''? Little Vivio just had to go and get herself adopted not by one, but by two {{Action Mom}}s]].

* Pictured above: ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' StrikerS has the Cradle of the Saint, which requires [[spoiler: torturing Nanoha and Fate's six year old foster daughter Vivio, the clone of the Sankt Kaiser, to start it up.]]

* In the ''GhostInTheShell'' franchise, it is possible to produce [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot hyper-real androids with all the neurological affectations of a living human]] via electronic "[[MindRape Ghost Dubbing]]". This process drains and kills the "master" after only a few copies are made; plotlines concerning the process appeared in ''Ghost In The Shell: Innocence'', a few ''Stand Alone Complex'' episodes, and the original manga.

* In ''Venus on the Half-Shell'' by Kilgore Trout ([[{{Ptitle3tzv6fw4}} Philip José Farmer]]), the interstellar drive works by painfully draining the LifeEnergy from beings in another universe. The faster you went, the louder the wailing you heard coming from the engines. At the end of the novel, [[spoiler: the last being dies, ending interstellar travel permanently.]]

*** Buddy, at the most, you are legally able to donate blood twice or three times a year. I hardly think 4 or 5 calls in the span of twelve months constitutes harassment.

* In the RTS ''The Moon Project'' the manual contains several essays to ring the player up to date with the plot, one of the more memorable ones is a request for asylum from a disillusioned soldier formerly of the United Civilized States military forces commenting how the cyborg battalions of the last war disappeared only just prior to the invention of a portable AI module that is large enough to store a human brain, a few electronics, and has a very large warning stating the type of execution for opening it. In another essay this is alluded to, as well as praising the soldier for anticipating the turn of events and defecting.

* In the ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' universe, the Imperium of Man has the [[http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Astronomican Astronomican]], a giant psychic beacon essential for warp travel. Originally powered by the Emperor's immense psychic strength, the device is later powered by the souls of ten thousand psykers (daily) trained for the purpose. The Astronomican's extreme psychic energy requirements cause the psykers' deterioration and death in only a few months. A constant stream of sacrificial psykers is therefore required to power the Astronomican. To say nothing of the requirements of keeping the Emperor himself alive...