Donating Blood in Guatemala 2026: Requirements, IGSS and Can You Sell Blood?

Quick summary: In Guatemala you cannot sell or buy blood: Article 39 of Decree 87-97 (the Transfusion Medicine and Blood Bank Services Law) prohibits any form of commercialisation. By law, a donor is 18 to 55 years old and gives blood voluntarily, freely and without payment (Art. 7), with age exceptions at the medical specialist’s discretion. The Health Ministry (MSPAS) adds as basic requirements (2022) weighing over 110 lb and not being under medical treatment. At IGSS, the Hospital General de Enfermedades blood bank asks for three donors per admitted patient and says three months between donations; its own pages disagree on the minimum weight, so confirm it there.

General information, not medical advice. Donors are selected under the requirements, norms and techniques of the law’s regulation (Decree 87-97, Art. 8); confirm your case with the blood bank.

Can you sell blood in Guatemala? No

The answer is in Article 39 of Decree 87-97:

«Se prohibe la venta, compra, exportación y toda forma de comercialización de sangre y sus derivados»

In English: the sale, purchase, export and any form of commercialisation of blood and its derivatives is prohibited. The ban covers both sides: selling your blood and buying it. The law’s definition of donation (Art. 9) points the same way: «la donación de sangre es el acto por medio del cual una persona en buen estado de salud, que se denomina donante, cede en forma libre, voluntaria y gratuita, parte de su sangre para ser utilizada en seres humanos con fines terapéuticos o de investigación científica». In English: a healthy person, the donor, gives part of their blood freely, voluntarily and at no charge, for use in humans for treatment or scientific research.

The 1998 amendment, Decree 64-98, changed only Articles 3, 4, 16 and 20; it did not touch Articles 7, 9, 11 or 39. A search of Congress decrees found no later amendment to this law.

What is the penalty for selling blood? Article 36 says breaches of the law are sanctioned administratively under the Health Code (Código de Salud) and the law’s regulation, and that acts classed as crimes go to the criminal authorities. We did not review the Health Code or the regulation for this page, so we do not give a fine or sentence for selling blood.

If the hospital asks you for donors. At the IGSS Hospital General de Enfermedades, according to its January 2025 page: «Este líquido vital es un requisito cuando cualquier paciente ingresa a la Unidad, por tal razón se solicitan tres donantes por persona y entregan una constancia que va anexada al expediente». In English: blood is a requirement whenever a patient is admitted, so three donors are requested per person and a certificate is attached to the patient’s file. In other words, at that unit three donors are requested for each admitted patient. Paying someone to donate is not a legal workaround: Article 39 bans buying blood, and the law defines a donor as someone who gives blood without payment.

Who can donate under the law (Decree 87-97, Art. 7)

Article 7 says «se considera donantes de sangre a toda persona comprendida entre los 18 a los 55 años de edad, que cede voluntaria, libre y gratuitamente su sangre, salvo excepciones en que podrá extenderse el límite de edad a criterio del profesional médico hematólogo o especialista en medicina transfusional, Director del Servicio de Medicina Transfusional y Bancos de Sangre actuante, en forma y cantidad que indique la prescripción médica en cada oportunidad».

In English: a blood donor is any person between 18 and 55 who gives their blood voluntarily, freely and without payment, except that the age limit can be extended at the discretion of the haematologist or transfusion-medicine specialist directing the blood bank, in the form and amount the medical prescription indicates each time.

How often? The text of Decree 87-97 we read gives no interval in days or months. Article 11 says: «La Comisión Nacional indicará la cantidad de sangre a donar y la frecuencia de las donaciones que podrá efectuar cada donante durante el año». In English: the National Commission sets the amount of blood to donate and how often each donor may donate during the year. Each blood bank keeps a donor register. The three-month interval below is what IGSS publishes, not an article of the law.

Donor selection follows the requirements, norms and techniques set in the law’s regulation (Art. 8). We did not review that regulation for this page.

Requirements to donate blood in Guatemala

MSPAS published those four basic requirements (willingness, age 18 to 55, over 110 lb, and not being under medical treatment) in its June 14, 2022 release for World Blood Donor Day.

Donating blood at IGSS

In January 2025, IGSS (Guatemala’s social security institute) published a note on the Hospital General de Enfermedades blood bank: «Con esta acción voluntaria y no remunerada, se pueden salvar vidas y contribuir al Banco de Sangre del Hospital General de Enfermedades». In English: with this voluntary, unpaid act you can save lives and contribute to the hospital’s blood bank.

That list is part of the requirements the note publishes, not the full list, and the hours are as of January 2025. Confirm with the hospital before you go.

Minimum weight at IGSS: its pages disagree. IGSS’s June 2024 and January 2025 notes give different minimum weights for donors. So we do not publish an IGSS figure: ask the blood bank directly. The June 2024 note repeats the three-month interval between donations.

For IGSS appointments and finding your unit, see our guides to booking an IGSS medical appointment and IGSS social security.

Hospital San Juan de Dios and other public hospitals

The sources we reviewed do not include a requirements list for Hospital General San Juan de Dios or any other individual public hospital. What applies to every blood bank, public and private, is the law: Decree 87-97. As a general reference, use the MSPAS basic requirements in the table above and confirm with the hospital’s blood bank before you go.

According to MSPAS (2022): «En Guatemala entre los bancos de sangre del MSPAS, Instituto Guatemalteco de Seguridad Social y privados hay 88 registrados, de los cuales el MSPAS cuenta con 42 servicios de medicina transfusional bancos de sangre». In English: 88 blood banks were registered across MSPAS, IGSS and private providers, 42 of them MSPAS transfusion services. These are 2022 figures.

To find hospitals in the capital, see our directory of hospitals and clinics in Guatemala City.

What happens to your blood after you donate

• Who draws it (Art. 10): «La extracción de la sangre del donante debe ser realizada por personal calificado para ejercer dicha función y efectuarse en centros fijos o unidades móviles debidamente calificados para este propósito». In English: qualified staff draw the blood at properly qualified fixed centres or mobile units. During the donation, the donor is in the care of the head of the blood bank.
• Testing (Art. 15 and amended Art. 20): every donation is tested. Article 20, as amended by Decree 64-98, bars transfusions without prior compatibility testing between donor and recipient blood, except for urgent cases set by the regulation, and says «por ningún motivo se dejarán de efectuar las pruebas siguientes» (the following tests must never be skipped): syphilis, HIV, Chagas, hepatitis B (surface antigen), hepatitis C, and any others the National Commission sets.
• Use (Arts. 5 and 6): «La sangre humana sólo podrá ser utilizada para el tratamiento de seres humanos e investigaciones científicas» (human blood may be used only to treat human beings and for scientific research), and the only source of blood for those purposes is the human being.
• Export (Art. 28): supplying blood abroad is limited to catastrophes, public calamities and special cases, at the health authority’s discretion.

Knowingly donating infected blood is punishable. Article 38 says people who know of a positive serological test, among those the law covers for immunological or infectious diseases, and donate their blood «serán sancionadas de acuerdo al Código Penal» (will be punished under the Penal Code).

Why voluntary donors are needed

In its June 2022 release, MSPAS wrote: «La donación voluntaria de sangre representa para nuestro país menos del 5% del total de donaciones que se reciben en los bancos de sangre». In English: voluntary donation was under 5% of all donations received by blood banks. That is a 2022 figure. The law tells state and private blood banks to promote donation: «Deberán además promover la donación familiar y voluntaria, así como la humanitaria altruista» (they must also promote family and voluntary donation, as well as altruistic humanitarian donation) (Art. 43).

Source summary

Related procedures

• IGSS social security guide: contributions, programmes and benefits.
• IGSS medical appointment: where to book and what to bring.
• Hospitals and clinics in Guatemala City: directory.
• Healthcare in Guatemala: hospitals, costs and insurance.

Sources, read September 29, 2026: Decree 87-97 on the Congress of the Republic website (scan of the Diario de Centro América); Decree 64-98; MSPAS press release, June 14, 2022; IGSS note, January 14, 2025; IGSS note, June 14, 2024.