Bmo,
You wrote, "With all due respect, the word (not the phrase) you really needed to define was "survival.""

I respond by sharing the first part of the first paragraph of my book that I have been working on intermittently for the past decade, and which will probably take that much longer to finish. I am no "expert", nor do I consider my opinions to be necessarily true for anyone but myself, but since you expressed an interest in what my definition of survival might otherwise be, I will share this much:

(This is of course only a rough draft)

SURVIVAL

Survival: [(sur- < Fr. < L. super- = above, beyond, more than, over, upon,) + (viv < L. vivus = alive, life, living) + (-al < L. = action of, belonging to, characterized by, like, of the kind of, pertaining to, process of, relating to)].

Survival is that systematic state of mind and body that is expressive of a state of existence that is one step beyond death. An individual is alive because that individual has survived up until the present moment, and is not presently accompanied or influenced by any known factor that is sure to result in that individual’s death. Survival is usually thought of as a state of being that is base and temporary and exists only until all the basic physical and mental needs have been met to the point that other activities that are usually associated with “living” can begin.