>AFAIK The scientific consensus is that it's not life. Not because of any semantic reason but an ethic and possibly legal one. If at any point in the future we decide to "protect all life" then things like vaccines would be consider genocide. We still have things like traps and pesticides, but that's a bridge we'll cross when we come to it.

We consider bacteria life and have no problem eliminating, or even exterminating them, the same goes for disease causing parasites. No one is saying we should protect malaria because it is alive.