Question

Do you consider viruses living or not, explain your answer in full.

Answer 1

No, virus are not considered living.

For differentiating living and non living , there are few questions you could ask like:

Does it has its own biological machiney to replicate? Does it show cell division ? Does it show merabolism ?

For each of this question virus recieves a fail. They need to hijack the reproductive machinery of host cell to multiply which redirects the 'photocopy' of the genetic code of virus and sealing it inside the newly formed container which itself is synthesised by the host cell ,the CAPSID.

Further it dosent need to require energy to survive , nor it is able to regulate its own temperature . They are merely like protein packets with no other cellular components like organelles dependent on the host cell for the energy currency ,ATP.

They dont grow and respond to any kind of stimuli. They dont have any biological activity of their own.

So all this helps us understand that why virus is not considered living