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And animals can't exist or reproduce without plant life. Containing RNA transcriptase proteins in some sense is as arbitrary as containing chloroplasts to qualify as life. We exist as part of a broader suite of "life" which is able to self-replicate sometimes depending on other self-replicators for part of this process whether that is obtaining chemical energy or RNA processing. I would qualify anything derived from the primordial soup of primitive replicators as life, viruses and virions fall in this category. Dependencies are inevitable in any abiogenesis.
