In a recent work, Y.D. Chong et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 105}, 053901 (2010)] proposed the idea of a coherent perfect absorber (CPA) as the time-reversed counterpart of a laser, in which a purely incoming radiation pattern is completely absorbed by a lossy medium. The optical medium that realizes CPA is obtained by reversing the gain with absorption, and thus it generally differs from the lasing medium. Here it is shown that a laser with an optical medium that satisfies the parity-time \((\mathcal{PT})\) symmetry condition \(\epsilon(-\mathbf{r})=\epsilon^*(\mathbf{r})\) for the dielectric constant behaves simultaneously as a laser oscillator (i.e. it can emit outgoing coherent waves) and as a CPA (i.e. it can fully absorb incoming coherent waves with appropriate amplitudes and phases). Such a device can be thus referred to as a \(\mathcal{PT}\)-symmetric CPA-laser. The general amplification/absorption features of the \(\mathcal{PT}\) CPA-laser below lasing threshold driven by two fields are determined.