In "‘Personhood’ imperils women’s hard-won rights" (Tribune, Feb. 4), Peg McEntee bravely waded into the huge issue of when life begins, but I had great difficulty following her logic.

If I were to destroy the egg of a California condor, I would be prosecuted. Not because I violated the rights of the condor parent, but because I terminated the life of a condor. In this case: fertilized condor egg equals condor life, and the federal government would hold up that argument.

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Yet McEntee and others (along with the federal government) say: human fertilized egg does not equal human life. How is that possible?

No one would dispute the government’s right to prosecute someone who terminates the zygote of an endangered species. Yet when it comes to human life, suddenly the termination of the zygote doesn’t equal the termination of a life.

In one situation the termination of a zygote is the termination of a life, and in another, the termination isn’t. It either is or it isn’t.

A human zygote should at least get the same protection as a condor zygote.

Pete Helgren

Salt Lake City