Definition essay: Life is reproduction

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Life is reproduction
Life is precious and complex and yet it can be defined through just one word, reproduction. It is important to note one most useful characteristic that is used to distinguish living things from non-living things is that living things are able to multiply through reproduction.
Basic Biology indicates that living things have distinct properties that make them different from non-living ones. The biologist’s stance on the characteristics of living things tend to differ depending on the theories they allude to. There is a philosophical school of thought that rejects the idea of having a need for a definition of life indicating that life is a complex fact of the natural world. Other people understand life as the focus of biological studies (Bruce 1)
Many times, we are wrong to think that we can distinguish non-living things from living ones. Scientists have proven that it is not easy to recognize living things because some of them require keen observation as minute samples which may exhibit slowed growth or dormancy in growth. Such organisms may be misconstrued for being non-living unless they are monitored over protracted periods in the conditions that allow their survival. There are no scientific tests to prove the existence of life or any one characteristic that is common to all living things. Life can only be defined through listing of characteristics that are shared by almost all living things (Brack 162).
Most of the living things have a membrane protecting them from the environment, a carbon based chemistry, require energy, water, obtain their energy from surroundings, metabolise, grow or multiply and maintain a population that adapts to the surroundings in different ways. It is notable that some of the non-living things such as fire may possess some of these properties while some other living things such as viruses only have few of these characteristics (Brack 163).
As eluded earlier, that even though there is no single characteristic that can adequately distinguish life, reproduction is one that is almost common to all life. Reproduction defines the very existence of plants, animals and the human species. Living things must originate from something before they can interact with the environment. Life cannot exist without reproduction and thus it may be right to claim that reproduction is life because it yields life. Whenever people talk about life, they are hasty to equate it to growth, function, time between birth and death and they forget that that before these experiences, a very importa...