The 1960s was a formative period for contemporary bioethics. Many of today's most established and influential bioethicists matured academically during this time, developing patterns of thought that persist in their contemporary work. This essay examines the manner in which values that attained prominence during the 1960s countercultural movement have manifested in dogmas, inadequacies and contradictions that plague contemporary bioethics. It suggests that bioethics' project of establishing an authoritative moral consensus and enforcing it politically is to some extent grounded in 1960s values, and is untenable as a comprehensive vision for many of the same reasons that predecessor movements in the 1960s also proved untenable.