Blood and blood products are considered essential medical goods. Their clinical use in transfusion medicine must meet particular safety and quality standards to prevent risks, especially the transmission of pathogens such as HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B and C. Since the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, standards for clinical blood have been further tightened. The World Health Organization (WHO) has promoted the adoption of transfusion laws and national policies to establish blood services based on voluntary, non-remunerated donations. Ghana stands out in sub-Saharan Africa as a pioneer in developing a blood supply centered on voluntary donors.

This chapter explores how the voluntary blood donor is constructed within Ghana’s transfusion-related medical and policy discourse. Focusing on the key terms safety and adequacy, which underpin strategies for managing transfusion-related risks, I employ Foucauldian discourse analysis to investigate their role in constituting the donor subject in Ghana’s 2020 national blood policy and in international guidelines such as World Health Assembly resolutions and WHO documents. I argue that the discourse on voluntary donors remains strongly influenced by the legacy of the HIV/AIDS crisis. This influence is particularly visible in the prominence of students as the primary donor group—a pattern found across sub-Saharan Africa, yet rarely examined in academic literature.

By examining these discursive constructions, this chapter seeks to contribute to broader discussions about the impact of global health discourses and the politics of risk on national approaches to securing safe and adequate blood supplies, highlighting the need for further research into donor subjectivities in the region.