Marriage vs Close Friendship

The other night, I was listening to the radio when a woman called to make a dedication to her husband. She mentioned that he was a quadriplegic and added that he was this way when she met him.

This one made me scratch my head in amazement. It's one thing to remain married to a spouse who became this way during the course of a marriage, but it's quite another to marry someone who was already so severely handicapped.

I am presuming that they view monogamy applying to them just like anyone else; rather, applying to her, as he's quite incapable of initiating sex with her or anyone else. In other words, entering this marriage, she is tacitly agreeing to give up sex and the possibility of having children for the rest of her life, because he is incapable of normal sexual relations. And I can't imagine any woman with a normal sex drive, being satisfied with "just cuddling" for the next fifty years or so.

This just blows my mind. To expect monogamy in this case, as is expected when both partners are capable of engaging in normal relations, is just a sick joke to me. The only way I could see this essentially brother/sister type of "marriage" working is if the woman has an extremely low or nonexistent sex drive and has no desire to have any children.

Otherwise, why marriage? Why could they have not simply had a very close, emotionally loving friendship? Why is friendship seen as a lower form of relationship? It seems to me if he loves her that much, then he'd not allow her to make such a big sacrifice for the rest of her life, and either insist on keeping the relationship one of close friends or agreeing to waive the monogamy part of it.

Some might say they got married so that she could put him on her insurance, or for some other practical reason. If this is so, then that's all the more reason to waive the monogamy expectation.

At any rate, I could never be that much of a saint. I understand her loving him emotionally, but I don't agree that the most appropriate way to express it in this case is in a legal, monogamous marriage.

I imagine I'm going to get hammered on this one, but these are my honest feelings on the matter.