Prokaryotes depend on the existence of complex structures (the world outside) to replicate themselves. Yours is not a good example. That aside, people have arg

Prokaryotes depend on the existence of complex structures (the world outside) to replicate themselves. Yours is not a good example. That aside, people have argued that the viral particle is like a gamete, which is also an incomplete stage of life unable to replicate itself. It would be like calling a sperm a human and saying humans are therefore parasitic and not living. A virus's primary life stage is lived within the environment of the cell which it commandeers, and from where it sends its progeny. The whole commandeered cell is the viral organism, and very much living.