Silk doesn't go on and reproduce through another silk worm once made its complete. Any parasite that requires its host for reproduction could be said to be a b

Silk doesn't go on and reproduce through another silk worm once made its complete. Any parasite that requires its host for reproduction could be said to be a byproduct of the host continuing its biological functions usually at the expense of the host. Nature draws no clear lines, humans apply taxonomy, any line we draw about what is alive and what isn't will be arbitrary. My opinion is a virus is alive as it core process is based on how all life on earth operates through DNA/RNA. That is my arbitrary line, a distinct self contained genetic code that continues to replicate and evolve is alive. If that code can no longer continue replicating successfully it is dead.