define "living". How do you determine something is alive.?

Question

Things that are living have the following characteristics:
1 - they can reproduce, making other things like them.
2 - they can respond to their environment.
3 - they can grow

so a person who cannot have children, is brain dead, and cant respond to anything, and has sevee dwarfism isnt living?

oops typo i meant severe *

Answer 1

An Old Question, I Don't Think you Will Find a Clear Answer, I'm Inclined to Take bladecrimson's Position, In the Past, When Someone Proposed a Definition, I Would Ask Myself: "How is this Different From Fire?"

Answer 2

Things that are living have the following characteristics:
1 - they can reproduce, making other things like them.
2 - they can respond to their environment.
3 - they can grow

Answer 3

There is no universal definition of life; there are a variety of definitions proposed by different scientists.To define life in unequivocal terms is still a challenge for scientists.

Conventional definition: Often scientists say that life is a characterstic of organisms that exhibit the following phenomena:

Homeostasis: Regulation of the internal environment to maintain a constant state; for example, sweating to reduce temperature.
Organization: Being composed of one or more cells, which are the basic units of life.
Metabolism: Consumption of energy by converting nonliving material into cellular components (anabolism) and decomposing organic matter (catabolism). Living things require energy to maintain internal organization (homeostasis) and to produce the other phenomena associated with life.
Growth: Maintenance of a higher rate of synthesis than catalysis. A growing organism increases in size in all of its parts, rather than simply accumulating matter. The particular species begins to multiply and expand as the evolution continues to flourish.
Adaptation: The ability to change over a period of time in response to the environment. This ability is fundamental to the process of evolution and is determined by the organism's heredity as well as the composition of metabolized substances, and external factors present.
Response to stimuli: A response can take many forms, from the contraction of a unicellular organism when touched to complex reactions involving all the senses of higher animals. A response is often expressed by motion, for example, the leaves of a plant turning toward the sun or an animal chasing its prey.
Reproduction: The ability to produce new organisms. Reproduction can be the division of one cell to form two new cells. Usually the term is applied to the production of a new individual (either asexually, from a single parent organism, or sexually, from at least two differing parent organisms), although strictly speaking it also describes the production of new cells in the process of growth.

Answer 4

The definition I have of life I recall from my biology course is:

1) respires (i.e. metabolises chemicals for their energy)
2) responds to stimuli (i.e. plant moving towards the light)
3) reproduces

Answer 5

If you believe something is a living thing to you it is. Science has little rules that they follow until they change them. Spiritual definitions are also different.

Answer 6

if something is alive, it has cells or some sort of matter that makes it up. you determine if something is alive by studying its behaviors and other aspects of the organisms life that it can not live with out.

Answer 7

Moving organisms; contain an organ that keeps them moving

Answer 8

Plants and animals

Answer 9

yep, David's right... so i won't bother repeating it.