Is silicon-based life possible?

Hypotheticl silicon life might look like animated crystals.

Conceivably, some strange life-forms might be built from silicone-like substances were it not for an apparently fatal flaw in silicon's biological credentials. This is its powerful affinity for oxygen.
When carbon is oxidized during the respiratory process of a terrestrial organism, it becomes the gas carbon dioxide a waste material that is easy for a creature to remove from its body. The oxidation of silicon, however, yields a solid because, immediately upon formation, silicon dioxide organizes itself into a lattice in which each silicon atom is surrounded by four oxygens. Disposing of such a substance would pose a major respiratory challenge.