The mortality statistics of 80 member states of the United Nations were used to calculate Gompertz constants. When compared with a model based on the cumulant of failures of 46 human biological functions, they were found to form essentially one set, their slopes spreading out from a constant value like spokes from the axle of a wheel. Data for the longest lived regions agree with a prediction based on the above model, and those for less long lived regions are consistent with such a model having a constant normal cumulant average but increased S.D.s. Several different approaches support the view that the data are based on a probabilistic life-span.