The definition of life, has certain conditions, such as the ability to replicate. A virus does not meet this particular condition of life, all by itself. Rather it needs a host to serve as a surrogate for reproduction.
If we extrapolate this condition of life, to a woman who cannot have a baby, but has viable eggs, she is not alive, as whole, using the replication condition. She is alive at the cellular level, but she is not alive as a multicellular unit. This shows the definition of life is flawed as we scale up. One may need to harvest her eggs and use a surrogate mother, then she will be considered, alive. She falls under the definition of a virus.
The same can be true of males. He may not be able to reproduce for various reasons and therefore is not alive except at the cell level. Under certain conditions he may not be able to reproduce, due to his mate not being fertile. She is not the proper host for him to be alive. I poking fun to show the flaw in the definition of life.
A virus is different in that it exists at the microscopic level and therefore comes under the cell size umbrella. It is not multicellular ,where the definition breaks down. As a unit, the virus has the potential to reproduce using a surrogate; can come alive. Instead of multicellular, it is multi-layered, with all the layers defining its unit nature.
A priest and a nun are not alive based on choice not to reproduce. Metabolism and growth alone are not enough according to the definition of life. The ancients seemed to understand the bias of natural traditions, and found a loophole into non-material life that allowed the body whole to be dead, while something else remains alive that does not fit into the definition of the macro-forms life; soul and spirit.