Discuss whether or not a virus is a living organism.

Question

a_clan · Answer

A living-organism exhibits one or more of the following characteristics:
1) Respiration (requires oxygen in the process of breaking down food to generate                 energy)
2) Growth (in terms of size, i.e. by cell multiplication)
3) Reproduction (be able to produce more of its kind)
4) Response to stimuli (should be able to respond to any change in its environment)
5) Adaptation (should be able to accustomize to its surrounding)

Except growth, I presume, an acellular virus has most of the other characteristics of living organism.