WASHINGTON – Several civil liberties groups are demanding the White House investigate whether doctors conducted medical experiments on terror detainees during harsh interrogations led by the CIA under the Bush administration.

Physicians for Human Rights filed a legal complaint Wednesday with the Health and Human Services Department.

The group was joined by other nongovernment organizations, including Amnesty International USA.

Using long-declassified documents, the physicians’ group released a report Sunday.

The group claimed doctors monitored terror suspects during waterboarding, an interrogation technique that simulates drowning, and forced sleep deprivation, in what they contended amounted to illegal experimentation.

The author of the report, Nathaniel Raymond, said the declassified documents had never been examined with an eye on laws, including the Nuremberg Code, which was used to ban Nazi Germany’s medical experimentation.