"The Winnowing" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov.
The World Food Organization decides on desperate measures to decrease the population by a process of triage.
They attempt to blackmail biochemist Dr. Aaron Rodman into cooperating with their scheme (threatening to withhold food rations from his daughter's family if he doesn't comply), proposing to utilise his development of LP – a lipoprotein which when incorporated into foods will cause random deaths.
At a meeting between him and senior government officials and members of the World Food Council, he provides sandwiches laced with the LP as refreshment, so that they will die at random, just as they had planned for so many others.
He carefully matches the LP in the sandwiches (which he also eats) to his own metabolism, so that he will die quickly and not be guilty of involvement in the scheme.