In People v. Karapetyan (2006) 140 Cal.App.4th 1172, the Court held the natural and probable consequences doctrine does not improperly merge all assaults into the felony murder rule. There, a defendant argued that a finding of murder based on aiding/abetting an assault was really just felony murder, barred by Ireland's merger rule (Ireland, supra, 70 Cal.2d 522). (Karapetyan, supra, 140 Cal.App.4th at p. 1177.) This court disagreed. The opinion said the argument would be viable if the law stated that anyone who aided/abetted an assault that ended in death would be guilty of murder, whether or not the death was a natural and probable consequence of the assault. (Id. at p. 1178.) That would be a merged felony murder based on assault and would be prohibited by Ireland. However, the opinion said, "the natural and probable consequences doctrine operates independently of the second degree felony-murder rule. (People v. Culuko (2000) 78 Cal.App.4th 307, 322.) The natural and probable consequences doctrine does not merge all assaults into the felony-murder rule. Rather, it is a theory of liability for murder that applies when the assault has the foreseeable result of death. For aider and abettor liability, it is the intention to further the acts of another that creates criminal liability and not the felony-murder rule. "'An aider and abettor's derivative liability for a principal's criminal act has two distinct prongs: First, the aider and abettor is liable for the particular crime that to his knowledge his confederates are contemplating. Second, the aider and abettor is also liable for the natural and probable consequences of any criminal act he knowingly and intentionally aids and abets. . . . . . The law's policy is simply to extend criminal liability to one who knowingly and intentionally encourages, assists, or influences a criminal act of another, if the latter's crime is naturally and probably caused by (i.e., is the natural and probable consequence of) the criminal act so encouraged, assisted, or influenced.' Accordingly, the logical and legal impediments to felony-murder liability discussed in Ireland are inapplicable and do not limit the liability of an aider and abettor." (Karapetyan, supra, 140 Cal.App.4th at p. 1178.)