[AIDS and forensic medicine. I. The framework of the debate]

The ethical debate regarding the AIDS is very rich both at the theoretical and practical level, but--unlike what it is happening for other sectors, e.g. the euthanasia--these two aspects are integrated, shaping a true interdisciplinary job of ethical evaluation, in which clinicians, medical examiners, ethicists, nurses, clinical psychologists, economists and politicians are met. The utilized methodology will be to identify the human act in the light of the patient's good and the common good of the society. These are strong references and broadly shared in general sense, but they become problematic if we want to identify, and we should have to do it, the contents of such "goods". The authors intend to appraise the quality of a Centre for Research and Healthcare for AIDS patients, also considering the "performance measures".