A Virus/Life

What is life? Is it to exist? To be able to perceive? Self-awareness? Introspection? A sense of duty? A sense of belonging?
On that note, how is one able to honestly say that an object is alive? Scientists say that a virus is not alive due to the fact that it can not reproduce on its own. Yet, it shows signs of a rudimentary intelligence by its usage of an organism's cells to copy itself instead. A virus evolves, while a rock can not. A virus hides itself in order to preserve its well-being, waiting until the conditions of the host best suit it. Isn't that a Darwinian theory at its best? Survival of the fittest? And if so, couldn't one argue that this is proof of life, that it is the defining characteristic of a LIVING organism? Survival. At all costs.
A virus does not kill itself, unless it directly benefits it kind. When a virus copies itself, the original is lost, but it creates multiple progeny to take its place. Other organisms, however, kill each other not to benefit their kind as a whole, but rather to their sub-groups. Humans, on the far extreme of perverse depravity, kill for no need at all. What a human wants, it DESERVES it, no matter the harm that human causes to its own kind or others. Humans are a paradoxical creation, breeding degradation and violence on one side of the spectrum, but all the while possessing the abilities of creation and love. Emotions rule them, and so emotions will be their downfall. Theirs, and all other forms of life.
Save the virus, that is. The virus which willingly destroys itself so that its kind can prevail. The virus that scientists claim is not a living entity, yet, somehow, has survived through countless millenia. The virus: cold, efficient, emotionless. Perfect.