Born in Lynchburg, Virginia, Morton studied at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania despite her family's expectation that she would aim to find a husband who could provide for her.

[3] As a child, she occasionally assisted her two older brothers, who were doctors, on their house visits or by sterilizing their medical instruments, and also attended to pets in her neighborhood.

[4] Following the death of her father, who had strongly opposed her desire to become a doctor, she enrolled at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1893, using money saved from her childhood allowance.

[3][4] In her autobiography, Slaughter remarked that her upbringing and education had "been designed... to make me a capable wife—not to imbue me with a desire for a career,"[4][5] noting that her father had left her no money.

[3][7][8] During this time, Slaughter took courses, observed surgeries, and wrote a number of scientific papers including several comparing the health of women and men.

[3] Following the advice of Victor Horsley, her instructor in London, she also traveled to the British Government Laboratory in Mumbai for six months to work on prophylactics against the bubonic plague.

She subsequently spent a period of time in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) studying tropical diseases, and visited Manila, before returning home.

[3][16][17] In 1942, Morton commissioned a statue by a sculptor in New York, which she donated to Spring Hill Cemetery in Lynchburg, dedicating it to the youth of the city.

Without the professional network she had in Washington D.C., she additionally took on work as an examiner of applicants for city employment and as part of the medical staff of the Teachers' Retirement System.

Morton was made the first chairperson of the committee, through which she organized public lectures by women physicians across the United States, remaining in the position for three years.

[20] Morton traveled to inspect and report on the conditions of hospitals and educational institutions, including a four month trip around South America.

In response, the Medical Women's National Association (MWNA) voted to establish a War Service Committee, with the aim of creating new American hospitals in Europe.

Morton began separating the AWH from the MWNA, aligning it more with her personal aims than those of its parent organization as she tried to placate the Red Cross in order to receive official recognition for their hospitals.

[6] Morton continued running her New York practice while attempting to aid young people in Yugoslavia and Serbia who had been disrupted during the war into education.

It was published in a compilation titled Daughters of Aesculapius alongside other fiction and non-fiction works written by alumni and students at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania.

[28] Over the course of her career, Morton published 23 scientific articles in medical journals and is credited with 11 inventions, including a surgical shoe and adjustable bed-lifting blocks.

[32][33] Writing in the journal The Moslem World, S. M. Jordan described the book as "good reading" and a "worthy successor" to Morton's previous publication.