# If your wife was in a PVS could you legally have sex with her?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-your-wife-was-in-a-pvs-could-you-legally-have-sex-with-her/296915>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 30, 2005, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-your-wife-was-in-a-pvs-could-you-legally-have-sex-with-her/296915 "2005-03-30T07:33:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-your-wife-was-in-a-pvs-could-you-legally-have-sex-with-her/296915/21 "2005-03-30T21:47:56Z")

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> [@Staggerlee](#):
>
> You’re thinking of ‘The World According to Garp’ by John Irving, where at the start a nurse gets pregnant by a comatose fighter pilot who suffers from a permanent hard-on, or something along those lines…

He actually wasn’t comatose; he was conscious, just severely brain-damaged, and masturbated constantly. The injury (due to a piece of shrapnel that was inoperable) gradually became worse, and I believe Jenny performed the act with him after he lost control of his hands. Clearly not capable of consent, but it still seems like something of a kindness, compared to screwing someone who’s unconscious.

Sorry. I just _love_ John Irving.

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