Mrs Violet Moss Brown, the Jamaican woman who was declared the world’s oldest living person at age 117, before she died on September 15, 2017, is truly the gift that keeps on giving.

Earlier this month, The University of the West Indies, Mona, St Andrew, announced that the family of the late supercentenarian had donated her body to the university’s anatomy section of the Faculty of Medical Sciences.

It is believed that many living people will benefit from the research on the body of Mrs Moss Brown, which will have far-reaching implications for the university’s efforts to understand the factors that contribute to longevity.

The donation, as stated by family members, was a wish of Moss Brown. We are pleased that short-lived protests among a few opposing individuals did not derail what is a significant gesture that might well help to chart the way to longer life.

According to The UWI, the study of the human body is a vital aspect of medical education and the faculty feels privileged to have the support of the community in the teaching of its students, as these donations allow for real-life appreciation and hands-on training in a foundation discipline of the health sciences.

“In the case of Mrs Moss Brown, we are particularly grateful given her status as a supercentenarian and the potential contribution to the advancement of medical science,” Dr Tomlin Paul, dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, is quoted as saying in a press statement from The UWI.

The UWI, as do universities all over the world, routinely accepts donations for teaching and research purposes, but views the donation of the Duanvale, Trelawny, woman as “a historic case” for the university and the region.

Prior to her death, the institution said, Mrs Moss Brown was verified by the Guinness Book of Records as the longest-living person in the world who had remarkable use of her intellectual capacities at 117 years.

We are assured by Dr Michael T Gardner, lecturer and former head of anatomy in the faculty, that the university will exercise “the greatest of care as we approach research on Mrs Violet Moss Brown”. We and Jamaica would expect no less.

Our suggestion to the university is that it should not be shy about conducting the research in partnership with other universities and research centres elsewhere in the world, if it was satisfied that more state-of-the art equipment and advanced technology would help to ensure greater success.

After all, Mrs Moss Brown belongs not just to Jamaica but to the global family, and any discovery that could unearth knowledge leading to the enrichment of the human experience should be willingly shared with the world community.