Reddit mentions of Bioethics, 2nd Edition

I bought the Blackwell Anthology for a course maybe three years ago, and still refer to it from time to time. Timmons also has an anthology called Disputed Moral Issues that is much more basic, but has a bit of a primer before each of the sections which may be useful.

Lastly, if you want to look specifically at how ethics is currently being done, probably the most pervasive ethics text is Beauchamp and Childress' the Principles of Biomedical Ethics. As far as existent policy on research ethics, you could take a look at the Canadian Tri-Council Policy on Ethics has a free education module, the Declaration of Helsinki or the Belmont Report.

Let me know if this helps or of you need anything else along these lines!

Your friend has given you good advice for being a hireable academic. There are more openings in bioethics (relative to number of good candidates) than any other AOS. If you want to know where to go, a place to start is http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/breakdown/breakdown12.asp . If you want to know about the issues, it might be useful to check out something like http://www.amazon.com/Bioethics-Anthology-Blackwell-Philosophy-Anthologies/dp/1405129484/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1302796965&sr=8-2