Through advances in prenatal imaging and the field of immunology, the truly wondrous miracle that is pregnancy is now being more fully understood. Two aspects of pregnancy that your readers might be interested in knowing more about relate to the placenta and something known as fetomaternal microchimerism.

As many of your readers may know, the placenta is the organ through which the mother and prenatal child interface. The placenta is an organ that is attached to the inside of the uterus and connects to the prenatal child through the child’s umbilical cord.

What is not as well known about this organ is that the placenta is the only organ in human biology that is made by two persons, together, in cooperation. The placenta is ‘built’ from tissue that is part from mom, and part from the growing baby. Because of this, the placenta is referred to as a ‘feto-maternal’ organ. It is the only organ made by two people, in cooperation with providence. It is the first time mom and her baby come together, ...

The new plausibility standard14 with which courts now determine the adequacy of complaints disproportionately harms pro se litigants.15 First, the Supreme Court’s instruction that “conclusory” facts not be presumed true when determining a claim’s plausibility16 will affect those who (1) lack the resources to develop facts before discovery, (2) bring claims requiring them to plead information exclusively within the opposition’s possession, or (3) rely on forms in drafting complaints. Pro se litigants typify the parties who demonstrate all three behaviors. Second, determining whether the remaining allegations permit a plaus- ible inference of wrongdoing, as per the Supreme Court’s instruction,17 is a wildly subjective endeavor. Courts are likely—no doubt unintentionally—to draw inferences that disfavor pro se litigants because their “judicial common sense” judgments of what is plausible result from a drastically different set of background experiences and values.18 The ...