It was the intention of the author to purposely avoid defining these steps the embryonic human takes for survival as 'consciousness' in the sense that term is generally used. The term 'instinct' was also purposely avoided.
An unfertilized egg is a sub-unit cell of an organ. The conceptus, as it 'does' mitosis, fits the Dr. Condic assertion mentioned in essay one. The placenta is the first organ the newly conceived individual human builds. As to whom intended the placenta to be the essential organ for survival, I'll leave you to address that as you see fit.
I don't want to get into a different debate, but the placenta is there so we can gain nutrients from our mothers that we need to grow inside them. Placental mammals have an important advantage over non-placental mammals in that the young can live inside their mothers until they are at a much later stage of development. Otherwise whether we build a placenta or grow a big yolk sack would not seem to make much difference.