Reminds me of a favourite segment from Byron's Don Juan, which has always stuck with me.
Juan and his companions are cast adrift in a lifeboat and are finally reduced to drawing lots to see who would be sacrificed to feed the rest, as is the "custom of the sea".
The lot falls on Pedrillo, Juan's tutor, who is to be their next meal.

From Canto 2

He but requested to be bled to death:
The surgeon had his instruments, and bled
Pedrillo, and so gently ebb'd his breath,
You hardly could perceive when he was dead.
He died as born, a Catholic in faith,
Like most in the belief in which they 're bred,
And first a little crucifix he kiss'd,
And then held out his jugular and wrist.