Are Viruses Alive?

Viruses as Non-living Creatures
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Viruses as Non-living Creatures
A virus is a microscopic molecule/particle that is made up of proteins, carbohydrates, nucleic acids, and lipids and it affects biological organisms specifically the cells. Viruses are not living organisms, and on their own, they are unable to do anything until they enter the cells of a living thing (Villarreal, 2004).
Living things have specific characteristics that group them in this category and which any organism must have for it to be considered living. Viruses are regarded as non-living things because they do not have these characteristics. They include; the ability to grow, the ability to reproduce and the ability to maintain homeostasis (Moreira & Lopez, 2009).
Living things have the ability to grow as they make use of nutrients and the available energy which enables them to increase in size and complexity. On the other hand, viruses can only manipulate the cells of the living organism that hosts them into building other viruses meaning that viruses are created as fully formed particles that cannot increase in size/complexity. This disqualifies viruses from being living things.
Reproduction is a basic urge for species as a way of transferring genetic information. All living things have the ability to reproduce young ones of their own kind with similar genetics whereas viruses can only multiply. Viruses do not have the necessary tools used for reproduction instead viruses use their host to replicate genetic information which enables them to increase in number.

Living things must maintain homeostasis which is the ability of an organism to regulate its internal temperature. Living things must be made up of cells, but viruses do not have any cells. Viruses do not have the tools to monitor or make a change in their internal environment thus they are considered as non-living things (Dupré & O’Malley, 2009).
In conclusion, viruses do not possess the characteristics of a living organism such as the ability to grow, reproduce and adaptation to changes in internal temperature. Furthermore, they do not even have cells. Viruses are, therefore, classified as non-living things.
References
Dupré, J., & O’Malley, M. A. (2009). Varieties of living things: Life at the intersection of lineage and metabolism.
Moreira, D., & López-García, P. (2009). Ten reasons to exclude viruses from the tree of life. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 7(4), 306.
Villarreal, L. P. (2004). Are viruses alive?. Scientific American, 291(6), 100-105.