I've seen an analysis of "The Cold Equations" which claimed there was no way to set up the plot so that you have to space someone because of simple physics-- it would always be organizational failure.

It would be a rather different story if the theme was that organizations sometimes fail to set things up sensibly, and this leads to deaths.

And a quite interesting one if it were a matter of the odds rather than certainty-- the stowaway costs enough fuel that there's 10% chance that the rocket won't deliver the medicine. Now what?

Dickson's "Lost Dorsai" is close to that theme-- mercenaries are trapped in a bad contract, and there just isn't enough time to find the flaw which would lead to a good outcome.