[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 41 (Monday, October 18, 1993)]
[Pages 2073-2074]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6611--National Down Syndrome Awareness Month, 1993

 October 14, 1993

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    Down syndrome, the most common genetic birth defect associated with 
mental retardation, affects 4,000 babies a year from all ethnic and 
societal backgrounds. As little as twenty years ago, people with Down 
syndrome were stigmatized or, all too frequently, institutionalized. 
Now, happily, they are benefitting from important advances in research, 
education, and health care.
    Over the past two decades, scientists have applied the technology of 
molecular genetics and other sciences to the study of Down syndrome. 
Researchers are looking for the genes, or combination of genes, on 
chromosome 21 that have a relationship to the development of 
intelligence and the physical disorders associated with Down syndrome. 
They are also looking for a possible relationship between Down syndrome 
and Alzheimer's disease.

[[Page 2074]]

    There is a wide variation in mental abilities, behavior, and 
physical development in individuals with Down syndrome. However, 
individuals with Down syndrome benefit from loving homes, early 
intervention, special education, mainstreaming, appropriate medical 
care, and positive public attitudes--all made possible through the 
efforts of researchers, service providers, physicians, teachers, and 
parent support groups. In addition, such government agencies as the 
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the 
National Institute on Aging, components of the National Institutes of 
Health; the Maternal and Child Health Bureau; and the President's 
Committee on Mental Retardation have worked in concert with private 
organizations like the National Down Syndrome Congress and the National 
Down Syndrome Society to help those affected by this congenital 
disorder.
    To help promote greater understanding of Down syndrome, the 
Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 92, has designated the month of 
October 1993 as ``National Down Syndrome Awareness Month'' and has 
authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in 
observance of this month.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, do hereby proclaim the month of October 1993 as 
National Down Syndrome Awareness Month. I invite all Americans to 
observe this month with appropriate programs and activities.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fourteenth day 
of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-three, 
and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred 
and eighteenth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:41 a.m., October 15, 
1993]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on October 
18.