Morning briefing: New Sick Kids hospital for Capital THE Scottish Government has today given the official go-ahead to a new Sick Kids hospital for Edinburgh - and insisted it will not become another ERI disaster. The state-of-the-art facility will be built with private cash but, unlike the controversial Royal Infirmary deal, the building will eventually pass into public hands. Health Minister Alex Neil was today set to announce that the business case for the facility had been formally approved by the Scottish Government, in what will be seen as a significant landmark in the long-running saga. The development marks the completion of one of the final formalities before the contract to build and run the new hospital, which will be situated next to the ERI at Little France, is ready to be put out to tender. Mr Neil, who is today scheduled to visit the aging current Sick Kids site at Sciennes, said: "I am pleased to say that the outline business case for the new Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Clinical Neurosciences has been approved, meaning work to get the new hospital up and running for 2017 can move apace. Margo MacDonald presses ahead with suicide bill INDEPENDENT Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald today announced she had secured the necessary backing to go ahead with a new Bill to permit assisted suicide. And she claimed recent cases south of the border meant there was greater awareness of the issue than when her previous attempt to change the law was rejected in 2010. Ms MacDonald wants people who find their lives intolerable due to a terminal illness or condition to have the legal right to ask for help to end their own life. She needed the signatures of 18 MSPs if her new Bill was to proceed. Often, members" Bills take several weeks to attract the required support. But she said she had been able to put forward the 18 names at the same time as formally lodging the proposal at Holyrood. Among those who have given their signatures are Edinburgh SNP MSPs Marco Biagi and Jim Eadie, Lothians Labour MSP Kezia Dugdale and Lothians Green MSP Alison Johnstone. Child consumed "15 times the safe amount of powerful tranquiliser," court hears A TWO-YEAR-OLD'S life was put at risk after the child was allowed to consume more than 15 times the safe amount of a powerful tranquilliser. Danielle Murray, 20, admitted allowing the toddler access to medication at an address in Midlothian in October last year. Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday heard that the alarm was raised after the child's guardians became concerned for the tot's welfare as the infant had begun staggering and had pupils like "pin pricks." The child would fall forward without making an attempt to stop. The infant - who cannot be named for legal reasons - was rushed to hospital and examined by medics. Doctors conducted tests and found the child had consumed 15 times the safe dose for benzodiazepine. The court heard medical staff managed to stabilise the child's condition and police arrested Murray shortly afterwards. Murray admitted that she had let the child near a large quantity of medication, but said that the tot must have consumed the tablets when she had not been looking.