Greater Need Than Mine

But I've got a job to do, too. Where I'm going, you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that.

— Rick Blaine, Casablanca

A character insists on someone else getting attention — usually medical, sometimes water or evacuation — before he does, even though he is in need himself.

It can be a logical request, if the other person really IS more in need, and mostly means that the character cares about others even when he's in a bad situation himself. On the other hand, it can be a stupid move by a Martyr Without a Cause who's letting heroism get in the way of sensible triage — or by a wounded character in too bad a stage of shock to understand, where The Medic may have to persuade the insisting character to accept any treatment — or (worse) that the other character is dead and so past help.

If both characters are conscious, it can lead to a More Hero than Thou dispute.

In military situations, it is especially likely to occur when the Officer and a Gentleman or A Father to His Men must insist on it for his troops (see The Men First), but can also occur between those of equal rank. The Power of Friendship can power it, but it can also occur between strangers — a subtrope of A Friend in Need.

Can overlap with No One Gets Left Behind and Fire-Forged Friends. If the "need" is based on how important one character is as opposed to another, it's a form of More Expendable Than You. See Men Are the Expendable Gender for when men are expected to automatically consider the needs of women and children greater than their own, and some of the narrative consequences of this. Also see The Needs of the Many, where an individual or a small group decides that a large group has the greater need.

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Bleach:
  • After Byakuya rescues Rukia from Zommari, Isane and Hanatarou heal Rukia first. Byakuya had deliberately cut the tendons in his left arm and left leg during the battle, but Rukia had been brought to the point of death by Zommari's colleague Aaroniero. Even after Rukia has woken up, is almost completely healed, and is concerned about her brother's injuries, Byakuya tells her to stay put until Isane and Hanatarou have finished healing her completely, despite the fact he's still bleeding merrily away. Although it's never overtly mentioned, the fact Isane and Hanatarou are healing Rukia means Isane must have healed Hanatarou first before both of them worked on Rukia's injuries, as a possessed Rukia had badly injured Hanatarou before Zommari was killed by Byakuya.
  • Unmasked reveals that after the battle at Karakura Town was over, it turned out that Harribel, who was thought of as dead, had actually survived being cut down by Aizen, and her Amazon Brigade had also lived after both cutting off their arms to create the monster Ayon and being torched alive. Nevertheless, when the Amazon Brigade approached Orihime for healing, they insisted on her healing Harribel first rather than them and utterly refused to have their massive injuries treated until they were sure that their leader would live.
  • When Masaki came dangerously close to dying thanks to a Hollow infecting her, Urahara offered a solution that required Isshin to give up his life as a Shinigami (that means never returning to Soul Society or being able to see his friends again). Urahara made no effort to hide the sacrifice Isshin would have to make, and even Ryuken thought to himself that, since he effectively stood to gain absolutely nothing in return, there was no way Isshin would accept it. Yet he did. Immediately.
• In Dragon Ball Z, at the end of the Buu saga, Goku has Dende cure Vegeta of his wounds first, because he was the most damaged of them all.
  • Bulma from the future timeline wanted a world where the androids didn't exist and everyone she loves is still alive. To that end, she built a time machine knowing that even if they fixed the past, it would not change their timeline and they would still be stuck with the androids.
  • The Gohan of the same timeline lost his arm after a gruesome battle with the androids. There was only one Senzu Bean left in the world (Korin, who grew them, was one of the many heroes who had died in this timeline) which could have restored Gohan's arm, but Gohan instead used the bean to save Trunks, who was in critical condition.
• Fate/stay night: Shirou has a bad habit of being mostly dead. Frequently. Nevertheless, he makes damn sure that everyone else is okay before he passes out from blood loss. He's so self-sacrificing that it actually pisses off Saber, who thinks his heroics border on suicidal.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • After Roy kills Lust, he insists that Havoc be treated before him.
  • Throughout the series, it becomes clear that while Ed and Al want to return both of their bodies back to normal, Ed definitely knows his own situation (missing an arm and leg but with fully functional replacements) is not nearly as bad as Al's (missing his entire body with a lot of Sense Loss Sadness). Ultimately, after Ed gets his arm back at the cost of Al's metal body, he sacrifices his alchemy to bring Al entirely back to normal and decides to just suck it up and live with the mechanical leg.
• Fushigi Yuugi presents us with an example in the sixth and seventh episodes. After Miaka stabs herself to save Tamahome, Hotohori, and Nuriko from the evil Mirror-Miaka, Tamahome and Hotohori donate blood to her — from the chest and the wrist, no less. The group is then taken to Mount Taikyoku so they can send Miaka home, but their injuries had to be healed first. Although Miaka's wound was far worse and nearly fatal while Tamahome and Hotohori didn't even bleed much, she insists that the two men be taken care of first.
  • Similarly, this is one of Takiko Okuda's biggest character traits in Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden — and one of the reasons why she earns the respect of her Seishi. But it's also a deconstruction since Takiko has a serious case of Heroic Self-Deprecation and one of the "signs" is putting others before herself more than she should... so ultimately, Takiko's lack of self-worth is one of the reasons why she's devoured from the inside by Genbu itself.
• In Maiden Rose, Azusa invokes this in a reversal of The Men First after he and Klaus were found at the riverbank. Though it makes sense due to the greater severity of Klaus' injuries, it's notable because the medics/troops were more keen to help him in spite of being lower in rank and less seriously injured.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi: Negi and Asuna find themselves injured after a fight. There's only one Super Healing Macguffin. And Negi insists that Asuna get it.
• One Piece: One of the core character traits of Monkey D. Luffy. It doesn't matter what condition he's in, his friends come first.
  • In the Drum arc, he begs for an ill Nami and injured Sanji to be saved while he himself is freezing to death.
  • After getting himself separated from his crew and stranded in Amazon Lily, Luffy is offered a choice by Boa Hancock: take a ship to reunite with his crew and leave the island while having the women who tried to defend him remain as stone statues forever, or have them turned back to normal in exchange for never being allowed to leave. To the utter shock of Hancock and her sisters, Luffy responds with "Oh, so you will turn them back to normal? Thank you!"
  • Inverted in Impel Down. Luffy is injured, frozen, and has been horrifically poisoned. His ally, Bon Clay, was injured protecting Luffy. Luffy still begs Bon Clay be helped, despite his need being obviously greater. It's this very fact that gets them both help.
  • In Nami's flashback, her adoptive mother Bellemere made it back to her home island, Cocoyashi, with a baby Nami and young Nojiko through a raging storm. When the citizens found the three, they wanted to treat her first, but she insisted the girls be looked at before her.
• At the end of one of the botched timelines of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Madoka uses her last Grief Seed to save Homura instead of herself. Then again, she knows that Homura is able to travel back in time and prevent her sacrifice from being necessary, but still.
• In the showdown of the Record of Lodoss War TV series, Spark tells Garrakk that he will charge Naneel and take the hit of her deadly magic, so his friend can get close enough to her to kill her. Garrakk does not object to his plan, but when Spark counts down from three, he doesn't wait for him to finish and charges first, as it was his special mission to keep the other one alive at all cost.
• A variation occurs in Spirited Away. Chihiro is gifted a medicine ball from a river god, which she plans to use to turn her parents into humans again. She ends up giving part of it to Haku to make him cough up Zeniba's seal/free him from Yubaba's control and the rest to No Face to make him throw up everything he ate in the bathhouse and turn him good again.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! has an episode featuring a flashback to when Yugi's grandfather forfeited a duel over some water because his opponent was dying. Both are still alive, as both were rescued shortly after that.

Comic Books

• DCeased: Jimmy Olsen just manages to react in time to shut himself and a few other survivors in one of the Daily Planet's spare rooms when the Zombie Apocalypse goes down. When Superman arrives, he's clearly relieved to see his friend unharmed and asks why Jimmy didn't use the signal watch. The young reporter answers that he was hardly the only person who needed Superman's help at that point.
• Iron Man: Tony Stark has essentially killed himself at least twice for the sake of Steve Rogers:
  • During the Red Zone arc in The Avengers, Red Skull (who immunized himself) unleashed an airborne poison and trapped Steve Rogers inside of a room with it. Tony Stark, despite being safe inside of his suit due to the air filters in it, takes off his helmet to give Steve mouth-to-mouth in order to keep him alive long enough for the super-soldier serum to fight off the effects of the poison, even though Tony was well aware that he'd most likely end up dying by doing so. In his mental dialogue, he even says that Steve is far more important than he himself is. Don't worry, to the shock of all of the readers, they both get better.
  • At the climax of the Execute Program storyline in the Iron Man title, Steve is caught by the last of the rogue Iron Man armor and is about to be crushed. Without a single moment of hesitation (beyond a token yell of "STEVE!" ), Tony stops his own heart in order to shut the thing down, thus saving Steve's life at the cost of his own. Almost. He's dead for about half an hour, but then he's... well, fine.
    • It is worth noting that no one, Tony included, knew that he would get better or why.
• Jimmy Olsen #11: This turns out to be why Jimmy has been apparently snubbing Superman for Clark Kent. While in disguise during a news hunt, he overheard two crooks plotting to kidnap him to deter Superman during a planned robbery. Knowing that if Superman knew, he would insist on guarding him to the exclusion of any other super-jobs he had lined up, Jimmy staged a "breakup" of their friendship to fool the criminals.
• A long-ago story arc in the Star Wars Expanded Universe comics involved a planet that was dying as its life-support systems failed. The missing component had been presented to an underworld boss years earlier by Han Solo (who thought it was junk, not knowing its purpose at the time), telling him it was an award from the Alliance for his courage. Lando & Han hatch an elaborate plan to steal it back, only to be captured. Upon finally learning what they were doing with his prized trophy and why, the crime lord tells them they must take it back. It was the one thing he'd ever gotten for doing the right thing and he could not sully it by keeping it when others needed it now.
• When Rogue first joined the X-Men, Wolverine was bitterly furious about it. However, after she and he went up against some enemies, and she took an attack meant for him and Mariko and was dying, he forced her to absorb his own Healing Factor — over her objections, as she pointed out he was injured, too.

Fairy Tales

• The heroine of The Star Money has nothing but a loaf of bread and the clothes she is wearing. One by one, she meets people even worse off than she is and offers her things to them. In the end, God rewards her by raining coins down, securing a Wealthy Ever After for her.

Fan Works

• In After the Fall of Giants, Kuno reveals that the reason for his family's madness is a mental illness, and that neither he nor his father can take the medication necessary to cure it as both are allergic to it. When Chi reveals that he has brought an allergy-free version of the cure with him from the future, but only has one dose, Kuno tells Sasuke to give the cure to his father, reasoning that if the cure is truly from the future, he can wait for it to be developed, but he has no idea how much longer his father can cope.
• At the conclusion of The Mermaid and the Genie, Ariel sacrifices her third wish to free the Genie as she originally agreed even when he offers to make her human again (Ariel having used her second wish to undo all of Genie's previous wishes, including both Ursula's wishes and Ariel's wish to be human), feeling that the Genie deserves to live his dream after he helped her achieve hers.
• Naru-Hina Chronicles: Naruto debates whether to be selfish with the favor owed to him by the Hyuga Clan and force them to let him marry Hinata, or to keep his promise to Neji and force the clan to stop using the Caged Bird Seal on branch family members. Eventually, he chooses the latter, and the immediate approval gained from the branch family makes his selfish choice moot.
• Subverted in Origin Story. After Bullseye's attack on their car causes a crash, grievously wounds Louise, and seriously injures Nico Minoru, Alex Harris takes the injured women to a hospital emergency room. While they are being treated, another doctor tries to corner Alex, pointing out that she (Alex) is covered in blood. Alex refuses his help, revealing to him that, as a Kryptonian, it would take a lot more than a car crash and a psychotic assassin to hurt her. The blood she's covered in all belongs to either Louise or Nico.
• In Origins, a Mass Effect/Star Wars/Borderlands/Halo Massive Multiplayer Crossover, nar tasi geth (those disconnected from the Consensus who avert Individuality Is Illegal) invoke this trope to Aria T'Loak, knowing they will end up dead/destroyed covering the organics' retreat.

Film - Animated

• Aladdin: This is one of the titular protagonist's defining traits(though Abu normally rejects this).
  • In the first film, he and Abu went through a lot of trouble trying to steal a loaf of bread while avoiding the guards. Once they were in the clear, they were about to feast until they saw some hungry homeless kids digging for food in the trash. Aladdin (and reluctantly Abu) offer the bread to them.
  • In the sequel, Aladdin: The Return of Jafar, Aladdin steals the ill-gotten loot of Abis Mal and rains it down all over Agrabah, which Abu objects to. He tells the monkey that the poor people need the treasure more than they do. Of course it's worth noting at this point Aladdin and Abu are connected to the royal family via Aladdin's relationship with Princess Jasmine, are living in the palace, and have everything they could ever need so Abu wanting to keep the loot is just him being greedy and they truly didn't need it in the first place.
• Kronk's New Groove: Throughout the film, Kronk has an opportunity to get something that he knows would make his father proud, which is the one thing he desires, but ultimately gives it up in order to help out his friends, such as giving up his house on a hill so that the old folks can have someplace to live, or defending Tipo for causing an accident at the cost of breaking up with Birdwell since it was Kronk's earlier encouragement which pushed Tipo to cause the accident in the first place. When Kronk's father learns of the sacrifices his son made and sees how fiercely his friends defend him for it, he gives Kronk the approval he so desperately craved.
• Onward: In the end, Ian has no choice but to hold off the dragon so Barley will be the one who gets to speak with their dad. As Ian has realized, while he never got to meet their dad, he at least had Barley as a Parental Substitute. Barley, on the other hand, needs to properly say goodbye to their father so he'll finally get closure and be able to move past his childhood trauma.

Film - Live-Action

• In the timeless classic Casablanca, Rick decides not to get on the plane with Ilsa, and instead join the Free French.
• In Casper, he has a potion to restore him to life. But the girl's dad fell off a cliff and turned into a ghost. Casper let him use the potion instead, saying "You need this more than I do".
• In Horns, Ig tries to give Merrin's cross, which he stole back from her killer, to her father. Her father tells Ig, "You need it more than I do". When Ig puts it on, it changes him back into a human without horns.
• Subverted in I, Robot, where Del Spooner (played by Will Smith) explains how he was once involved in a car accident that left him and a small girl trapped in sinking cars. A robot was on hand to save them, but despite his pleading, it chose him over the girl based on a calculated 11% probability of survival compared to his 35%.
  "That was somebody's baby. 11% is more than enough."
• "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one" is practically a mantra of the Star Trek movies, and its inversion is the premise of the third movie.
• Subverted in We Were Soldiers. During one evacuation, a soldier is seen on a helicopter with a sling on his arm. He gets off to make room for a fellow soldier being taken on a medical litter. As the soldier who got off sends off the wounded one and wishes him well, he then gets shot in the head by an offscreen enemy soldier. The wounded soldier then attempts to hold onto the now dead guy as the helicopter takes off.

Literature

• Trout in Chanters of Tremaris stops his friend from using her healing magic on his arrow wound and directs her to a teammate who has been stabbed in the chest with a spear.
• In Codex Alera in the first book, a powerful knight insists the healing medics take care of more seriously injured men and not tend to the flesh wound above his eye. They do.When a dangerous and even stronger enemy knight faces him, the heroic knight holds him back but is blinded and distracted when blood flows into his eye. He dies during this moment of distraction.
• In The Dresden Files book Small Favor, during the rescue at the book's climax, Gentleman Johnnie Marcone insists that the first person to be evacuated be the Archive, a wounded and unconscious twelve-year-old girl. Harry Dresden remarks that it's stuff like this that makes it hard for him to file Marcone under "scumbag, criminal" and hate him.
• In Louisa May Alcott's Little Men, the schoolboys capture their handyman and demand that he tell them a story. He tells them about his American Civil War experience; this includes the time he insisted that the wounded Confederate next to him be taken to the doctors first because his injuries were worse.
• In Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel A Little Princess, the heroine is very hungry and finds a coin in the street. With it, she buys six buns and gives all but one to a beggar child who is starving.
• In William King's Warhammer 40,000 novel Space Wolf, Ragnar carries an injured Space Marine from a fight and gives him over to the priests for his injuries to be cared for. One priest inspects Ragnar's own injuries. Ragnar tells him to care for the other Space Marine — realizing it sounded stupid even as he said it — and the priest assures him that the man is being cared for and (gently) orders him to accept treatment.
• During a drought in the Warrior Cats novel The Fourth Apprentice, Jayfeather suspects that Longtail is giving his water to Mousefur because he thinks she needs it more.
  • Clan leaders tend to do this a lot, seeing as they have nine lives to spare and their Clanmates only have one. It is even stated at one point that the whole reason they are given nine lives in the first place is so that they can be the first to charge into battle and the last to take food or medical treatment. Notable examples include Bluestar, Firestar, Crookedstar, Cloudstar, and Redstar.

Live-Action TV

• In the pilot movie of the original Battlestar Galactica, in which Socialator Cassiopeia (basically a space Hooker with a Heart of Gold) insists "There are others in greater need than I" when Starbuck tries to get her medical attention for her broken arm.
  • At the ending of The War of the Gods arc, Apollo takes a blast for Count Iblis meant for Sheba. Of course, he got resurrected by the Beings of Light soon after.
• Community: Jeff wins priority registration in a school-wide game of Paintball Assassin, and gives it to his classmate Shirley, who could really use time with her family.
• JAG: "A Tangled Webb: Part II": In the previous episode, CIA man Clayton Webb had been brutally tortured by terrorists in Uruguay, but he escapes with the help of Gunnery Sergeant Galindez. They make it to a rural hospital with limited supplies. Seeing a woman suffering in the final part of her pregnancy, Clayton chooses to forgo any pain medication so it can be used for this mother. The woman is thankful and successfully births her son, who she names after Clayton.
• The M*A*S*H episode "A Full Rich Day" in which a guy comes in with his wounded buddy, and holds the E.R. hostage until the buddy is taken care of. "You save my buddy or everyone here dies" kinda thing. It truly becomes an example of this trope when the doctors serve him up an angry What the Hell, Hero? speech upon saving his buddy... and he collapses on the floor in front of them. The doctors then discover he is just as badly wounded as his friend.
• Stargate Atlantis:
  • After the control room of Atlantis is blown up (again), Col. Sheppard finds Ronon sitting on the ground with a large shard of glass sticking out of his shoulder. Sheppard asks him why none of the medics are attending to him, and Ronon says he wouldn't let them, because others in the room need help more. Shepherd immediately calls BS on this and orders one of the medics to see to Ronon's injuries. Ronon actually loves to pull this when he gets injured. Which isn't very often, actually.
  • More surprisingly, in the season 5 premiere, McKay is pulled out of the rubble of a building after an explosion so Dr. Keller starts tending to his injuries. McKay immediately tells her to tend to Major Lorne who has a broken leg. Keller is initially surprised (and jokes that he's Not Himself) since he tends to be selfish and a hypochondriac.

Professional Wrestling

• After André the Giant ripped Hulk Hogan's cross off his neck as part of his Face–Heel Turn during "Piper's Pit" on the February 7 (taped January 26), 1987 WWF Superstars, Piper told Hulk that he was bleeding but Hulk didn't seem to notice since he was so in shock from Andre's betrayal.
• Nikita Koloff had returned to WCW at WrestleWar 91, February 24, 1991, and attacked WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Lex Luger following his successful title defense against Dan Spivey, still angry about a loss to Luger from back in 1987. During the Sting/Luger-Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) match at WCW SuperBrawl, May 19, 1991, Koloff, who had Squashed Tommy Rich earlier that night, ran down to the ring with his Russian chain around his arm to attack Luger. Sting pushed Luger out of the way and took the shot himself. Sting would feud with Koloff for the next few months until Koloff disappeared again, with Luger going on to win the WCW World Heavyweight Title at the disastrous WCW Great American Bash 91 PPV.
  • During the War Games between Sting's Squadron (Sting/Koloff/Ricky Steamboat/Dustin Rhodes/Barry Windham) and The Dangerous Alliance (Rick Rude/"Stunning" Steve Austin/Arn Anderson/Bobby Eaton/Larry Zbyszko, w/Paul E. Dangerously and Madusa) at WCW WrestleWar 92, Koloff appeared to be arguing with Sting about something, but then pushed Sting out of the way and, to quote Jim Ross, "took the bullet from Anderson and Austin" himself.

Video Games

• In the DLC case of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, Sorin and Selena Sprocket got in a car accident, with both needing medical attention, and Selena begged the surgeon to save her brother instead, wanting him to live. The surgeon complies despite being her lover, resulting in her death. This actually brings about the events of the case, as the surgeon, Pierce Nichody, grew angry at Sorin, blaming him for Selena's death, and so attempted to murder his fiancée Ellen to make him feel the pain (only to end up killing Dumas Gloomsbury, his accomplice).
• In Deus Ex: Human Revolution You meet up with your boss, David Sarif, who's a Cyberpunk CEO in the last level, and he tells you that he has wounded and that you have to move them out first.
• Discussed by Azama and Effie in Fire Emblem Fates. During the Invisible Kingdom campaign, their supports have her putting herself in great and potentially fatal danger several times to protect others; as he heals her wounds he tells her that she's being a Martyr Without a Cause for it, but she refuses to step down because she wants to help anyone who needs it. If they have a Relationship Upgrade, he will tell her that he wants to protect her from now on, and she accepts so that he may fight at her side because she now knows that her life is precious as well.
• There's an achievement in Left 4 Dead for healing someone when your own health is critical.
• In Mega Man 10, Roll comes down with Roboenza early in the plot but saves her medicine in case another robot needs it. Sure enough, after defeating all 8 bosses, Dr. Wily takes all the medicine... and then Mega Man comes down with Roboenza and there is no medicine. So Roll gives Mega Man her own medicine.
• This is what Filia of Skullgirls ultimately decides to do with her wish on the Skull Heart, choosing to give her old friend Painwheel/Carol a better life instead of regaining her lost memories. She could live without them, but Carol's life was destroyed by her abduction and transformation by Lab Zero. It becomes a Bittersweet Ending when the Heart reveals that Filia will become the next Skullgirl, but it does slow her transformation to allow her to live out her remaining time happily with her friend.
• In Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2, Emilio insists to Derek and Angie that they operate on Heather (his nurse) first when they're both infected with GUILT. In this case, Emilio did so because he thought his antibodies would help him endure the infection, but sadly, that wasn't the case, as they were antibodies for a different strain of GUILT.
• At one point in The Walking Dead: Season One, the characters are escaping a horde of walkers by boarding a train that's quickly gaining speed. Omid and Christa, a couple, are both running to hop on the boxcar, and no matter who you choose to help up first, they'll berate you for not picking the other; Omid, because Christa is a woman, and Christa, because Omid's leg has just been wounded.

Webcomics

• Daughter of the Lilies: Margot insists on waiting to get medical aid after fighting a Greater Drath because her wounds aren't life-threatening, unlike some of the unlucky bystanders. She recovers but is left with extensive acid scars.
• Lovely People: When the social credit system starts penalizing people who use the electronic version of The Bible, Marigold tried to get her hands on her paper one, only to find out via her husband that a friend borrowed it. It turns out that the friend has social credit so low that she's not allowed to access media with a social penalty attached to it at all, so Marigold lets her keep it.
• Vaarsuvius from The Order of the Stick realizes that helping the Order to save the world is more important than trying to save their own marriage.
  • Before Durkon's birth, his mother Sigdi had lost both her husband and her arm in a cave-in while fighting against a troll. She was gifted the treasure that was retrieved from the cave by the soldiers in her unit as a consolation, which amounted to more than enough to have her husband resurrected and her arm regenerated by the Church of Odin. She elected instead to use the lot to arrange for the resurrection of five unrelated strangers, who had recently died without honour in a mining accident, to save their souls from being sent to Hel's domain. In explaining this to Durkon many years later, she rationalised that her husband had died with honour, and so had surely been sent to Valhalla.
  Durkon: Tha high priest o' Odin's more powerful. 'E coulda used those diamonds ta bring back Pa!
  Sigdi: Och, Durkon, yer a cleric now. I thought ye'd get it. Yer Pa died a hero. 'E's up in Valhalla, drinkin' wit Thor. Wha was I gonna do, pull 'im outta paradise when five others right in front o' me were damned ta Hel thru na fault o' their own?
• Stand Still, Stay Silent: A church that was an impromptu hospital for victims of the Rash got a supply of an experimental cure that was insufficient for the number of patients it was handling. This resulted in the church pastor refusing the cure in favor of medical personnel and others she considered more vital to the community than herself.

Web Original

• In For the Spirit of Creation, homeless Magical Girl Sara Aldred refuses food unless everyone else has eaten, and sleeps on the street so as not to deny someone else a bed at the homeless shelter. Luckily, her powers protect her from the physical effects of malnutrition and sleeping outside in freezing cold, but she still feels just as cold and hungry as anyone else would.

Western Animation

• In the Molly of Denali episode "Dream Tube", Auntie Midge wants the tube that the kids also want. When she discovers that Trini has an agate (and that the kids need $30 to buy the tube), she decides that since tubes come around every summer (and agates are rarer), that the kids deserve the tube more, so she buys the agate, meaning the kids now have enough money for the tube.
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil: Queen Skywynne wanted her son and firstborn, Jushtin Butterfly, to be king because she believed he was destined for greatness. However, Mewni being a completely matriarchal society led to Skywynne being put under enormous pressure to have a daughter, and eventually she caved. When she became pregnant with Solaria, she had to supersede Jushtin's claim to the throne and pass the crown to her daughter. While she publicly rejoiced, Skywynne was genuinely torn up about it in private and was close to breaking down when she took the Book of Spells and Magic Wand away from Jushtin but had to keep her feelings hidden in order to keep the kingdom happy. Jushtin doesn't blame her, as he was disinterested in ruling anyway.

Real Life

• Frederick Banting, the man who discovered insulin, died in a plane crash. He died because he insisted on saving the life of the pilot instead of treating his own wounds.
• As Fulke Greville recounts in his Life of Sir Philip Sidney:
  ...being thirstie with excess of bleeding, he called for drink, which was presently brought him; but as he was putting the bottle to his mouth, he saw a poor Souldier carryed along, who had eaten his last at the same Feast, gastly casting up his eyes at the bottle. Which Sir Philip perceiving, took it from his head, before he drank, and delivered it to the poor man, with these words, Thy necessity is greater than mine. And when he had pledged this poor souldier, he was presently carried to Arnheim.
• An even more heroic example came from the crash of Air Florida Flight 90 into the Potomac River when one of the men in the water kept passing the rescue helicopter rope to other people. He tragically perished, but a nearby bridge was renamed in his honor.
• The group of people who give the highest percentage of their income to charity? Not the rich, but the working class. Similarly, poor individuals, including those actually below the US federal poverty limit, contribute more volunteer hours than any other class.
  • During a spate of severe flooding in the 1990s, the United Kingdom received a charitable donation... from the people of Mozambique, which had itself experienced far more deadly floods earlier the same decade. This aid was offered, it seems, in gratitude for the offering of British Aid during their own natural disaster.
• Archduke Franz Ferdinand tried to get medical attention for his wife after they were shot. They both died nonetheless.
• Saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe. A Franciscan friar in Poland and ex-missionaire, he was a bold critic of Those Wacky Nazis which, coupled with him opening his friary to Jewish refugees, got him sentenced to Auschwitz. While there, he often stepped out of the ration line when rumors broke that they were running out. In July 1941, an escape happened, and ten men from the escaped man's block were to be randomly chosen to starve to death in punishment. When one of the condemned (a Polish sergeant named Franciszek Gajowniczek) broke down in tears over never seeing his wife and children again, Kolbe volunteered to take the man's place. Kolbe lasted three weeks, tending to the other condemned as best he could. The man whom he replaced? Gajowniczek survived Auschwitz and lived long enough to see Kolbe canonized in 1982.
• Tibor Rubin was a Corporal in the USA Army during the Korean War. He was captured and placed in a POW Camp. Barely given any food and seeing his fellow soldiers, this man who survived the Holocaust risked his own life to help his comrades. This excerpt narrating his actions comes from the ceremony awarding him the Congressional Medal of Honor:
  "Corporal Rubin disregarded his own personal safety and immediately began sneaking out of the camp at night in search of food for his comrades. Breaking into enemy food storehouses and gardens, he risked certain torture or death if caught. Corporal Rubin provided not only food to the starving Soldiers, but also desperately needed medical care and moral support for the sick and wounded of the POW camp. His brave, selfless efforts were directly attributed to saving the lives of as many as forty of his fellow prisoners. Corporal Rubin's gallant actions in close contact with the enemy and unyielding courage and bravery while a prisoner of war are in the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Army."

---