In accordance with the Church's Magisterium, the Dicastery aims at supporting and coordinating initiatives for responsible procreation and the protection of human life from conception to natural death, keeping in mind the needs of the person throughout all the different stages and conditions of life.

The Dicastery promotes and encourages organizations and associations that help women and families to welcome and cherish the gift of life, especially in the case of difficult pregnancies, and to prevent resorting to abortion. It also supports programs and initiatives of the particular Churches, Episcopal Conferences and Eastern Churches that aim at helping people involved with abortions.

It is also the Dicastery's duty to thoroughly examine the main ethical problems of biomedicine and laws related to human life, as well as the theories concerning life itself and the reality of humankind, even as regards changes in social life, in order to promote the person in his or her full and harmonious development.

In studying these subjects, the Dicastery proceeds with an interdisciplinary approach, in agreement with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and in collaboration with the Pontifical Academy for Life.