Are the viruses living or non-living?

 Are the viruses living or non-living?

There are various opinion among the biologists regarding the nature of life of viruses, that is ' Are they living or non-living'. This is because of the fact that the viruses show some characters of living beings and of life less objects. Some workers argue that the viruses are living organisms because of the fallowing reasons:

• The viruses grow and multiply inside the bacteria.
• As in all living beings, they contain the genetic material(DNA or RNA).
• They can also be mutated.
• As most pathogens do, they also cause disease in the host. 

Biologists who are of the opinion that the viruses are non-living, quote the following reasons:

• The viruses can be crystallized like chemicals.
• They do not exhibit life activities outside the host cell.
• They do not have an independent metabolism.
• They do not have protoplasm so that they are considered to be non-cellular.

But there is a clear cut difference between viruses and chemical molecules. Even after crystallization the viruses can cause diseases. So some virologists consider that viruses are intermediate between primitive living things and non-living things. These workers are of the opinion that the viruses are inert molecules that can live inside the cell.