In order to be considered alive, an organism must have the 7 characteristics of life. These characteristics include having structure and organization, response to stimuli, growth and development, removal of waste, obtain and use of materials and energy, the ability to reproduce, and the ability to evolve. Viruses are not living because they do not meet all of these requirements.
Cells are the simplest and most basic unit of life. All living things must contain some organized formation of cells. Viruses do have some sort of structure but it is not a cell structure. Viruses actually consist of a genome and a protein shell that protects the genome (Hogan). Although they do have organization, viruses do not contain cells so do not have cell structure or meet this requirement.
A response to stimuli must be an internal for
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Viruses invade host cells and use that cell’s “machinery” to create more viruses. The new viruses never increase in size through the entire lifespan ("Are Viruses Dead or Alive?"). Viruses do not have this characteristic of life because viruses stay the same size throughout existence and never grow or develops more than the original size.
Living organisms obtain energy and materials from outside sources to carry out necessary processes. Viruses get energy from the invaded host cells and use the cell’s metabolism to do so ("Are Viruses Alive?"). Viruses are also not made of cells and therefore do not go through cellular respiration which the materials are used for. Because viruses are not alive, there is no need for food until a host cell has been taken over.
All living things must eliminate waste to maintain an organism’s health. As discussed earlier, viruses have no metabolism. This means that there is no waste to be removed. Viruses do not obtain materials or energy that make waste and therefore do not meet this requirement of life