As sympathetic as I feel for the wife and family of this poor man, may he rest in peace, this whole event that you describe is problematic and downright creepy. It is problematic on two levels. One, marriage vows are not “renewable” because they are binding until death. A husband and wife can receive a blessing for their marriage, but should not try to recreate or ape the original ceremony. Two, a man in a so-called “vegetative state” is unable to participate in such a “renewal of vows” anyway. He can passively receive a blessing, but he cannot “vow” anything in such a state. As for the creepiness, it is odd and off-putting (not to mention an awful precedent) to recreate a ceremony in which pledges have traditionally been made to be faithful to each other “in sickness and in health, until death do us part” and then to “pull the plug” on the man immediately after.
