Passive in what though?  I believe that doctors really should explain more to the patients, so that our bodies don't seem like a complete mystery to us, so that we don't have to turn to yedda or webmed sites in order to ask people and find out about diseases we have, or things we might have.  I think that people are generally too ignorant about their own body.  At the same time though, people don't trust their doctors.  Some doctors really deserve to be trusted, while others REALLY don't.  So, it's all a difficult question.